Minipa's OC Guide: How not to Regurgitate Canon with a Mary Sue
by Minipa
Summary: OC, OC's and MOARRR OC's! Magic? Check. Appearance? Check. What they're WEARING? Check. Everything you need to know about creating OC's and inserting them into a story. This is specifically written for the first-time writers wanting to write their first OC story, and don't know how to start. If you're one of these writers, click in, join the adventure, and enjoy the ride!
1. CH1 - OC Creation: Physical Traits

**Chapter 1 - OC Creation: Physical Traits**

**Come on, come all!**

**This is yet another spin-off of the original trope discussions! But instead of covering everything as a general knowledge-based piece, this shall be FOCUSED on how to write an OC story!**

**Fun stuff such as: how to create a reasonable character, how to construct a backstory, how to give them a meaningful look, how to avoid writing Mary Sues without going towards the opposite extreme, and MOST IMPORTANTLY…**

**HOW TO NOT MAKE IT FATALIST!**

**Of course, this piece shall include my more-than vulgar humour y'all saw in the Trope Discussions, but this is mainly targeting the first-time writers that want to write their own OC story, and don't know how to do it!**

**So, for those of you with an idea of an OC, although me to be of service!**

**Here it shall be! Minipa's OC Guide: How not to Regurgitate Canon with a Mary Sue!**

…

**If you can't be bothered to read the whole thing, READ CHAPTER 10 and 11. IT TEACHES YOU HOW TO CHANGE CANON. PLEASE DO THAT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.**

**(https):/discord(.gg)/5WethAt ****\- Trope Discussions discord, remove the () - brackets/parenthesis.**

...

**Is this you?**

**'I have an idea for an OC story but I don't know if it's good.'**

**If you have reviewed this on a story, or have thought of it yourself, then this is for you!**

**Keep reading on, learn what makes a good and bad OC story (in my eyes), develop the fundamentals and then branch out on your own!**

**Edit: Discord server up at ****(https):/discord.(gg)/7c4gJST**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: MAKE SURE TO READ AT 1/2 SETTING FOR BEST PARAGRAPH SETTING.**

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**Introduction:** Okay, so this first chapter is called the Physical Traits of an OC. So, what would that entail? The simple stuff, namely: height, weight, eye colour, hair colour. Basically, just the attributes you would edit when you create a new character in just about any MMORPG. Pretty simple? Good.

Lucky for you guys, this particular chapter wouldn't be that ranty (wait until I get to the part on how to make credible changes to canon, then I am going to SHIT on fatalist fics). This short-ish chapter will be to help you create an OC that fits your vision, without going off the deep end of Mary Sue, or get stuck in the shallow end with a giant flotation device as a Victim Sue.

In short, it's how to make a reasonable character that's not super tall and drop dead gorgeous capable of harem-fying every friggin' story with a single appearance, or make a 4'11 manlet of an OC that is also fat, has diabetes, type 4 cancer, and can get his ass stomped by Happy.

I will also be going with random attributes, going through the list to create example OC's that I will be using for the rest of the OC creation process. I shall then write an example excerpt describing their appearance.

**What is an OC:** So, before we start, what exactly is an OC? An OC stands for original character, meaning that, they are a character or characters that you would insert into the canon story.

They are an original flair to the original story and range from main characters to side characters. Even naming previously nameless background characters could be considered an OC.

For this particular section though, we will be focusing on OC as a main character.

**Height: **Now, individual characteristics of a character can't really make an OC Mary Sue by itself (yes, not even heterochromia can do it by itself - although it's so red flaggy that it might as well be the Soviets invading). However, certain characteristics could actually allow for certain interactions to happen, or insecurities to form.

Ex. A 20-year-old male OC being 140cm tall (basically dwarfism) could probably cause some insecurity issues in the character. This could also allow for a story where the OC learns titan magic from Makarov as a way to 'address' that particular issue.

Ex2. Any OC being let's say, 210cm tall. They will tower just about over anyone in the story (even Gildarts who is likely over 2m tall as well) and will likely have some sort of issues that could be explored - such as finding clothes that fit or even just entering buildings. Not only that, if you make this a female OC, that could also lead to a character trait that could be addressed in the story.

Knowing this, how tall do you want to make your OC? Before you answer that question, ask yourself some questions as well, such as:

Is the height of my OC going to be a trait that is going to affect my character's development?

Is the height of my OC going to affect how they interact with the other members of Fairy Tail, or just other characters in general?

Is the height of my OC somehow affecting their choices in regard to magic use?

Depending on your answer to those questions, we could have multiple alternatives and story options to go upon.

Just like how I mentioned about overly tall or overly short OC's, you could also have an OC that is somewhere around the average, BUT, somewhere along the line, they develop some sort of issue where they constantly compare themselves to others, constantly believing themselves to be short despite objectively being above the average.

Ex. People who are 5'10 but think they are a manlet despite being taller than the national/international average.

Having this sort of irrational insecurity could also play well in your character development. They could get closer to a potential pairing or somebody who your OC would consider their best friend - especially if that certain character is part of the reason your OC was able to get past this particular insecurity.

Now for the second part, if your OC is an arrogant bastard that is also 6'5, there is a good chance they might mock the other characters based on their height (like how Gajeel mocks Levy's height by calling her 'shrimp').

These interactions could also mark the change in characters, outlining where an arrogant asshole OC matured and is no longer someone who constantly disrespects other people.

Remember how I said someone who is overly short might be inclined to use Titan Magic like Makarov? The same way if someone was really tall, they might be more inclined to use a physical magic. Such as Laxus using lightning magic mainly as a melee-type magic. Someone tall or physically superior to others would likely choose (in my opinion) a magic that would allow them to take advantage of their greater mass.

There are likely far more situations and scenarios that would have height affect a character. I hope by reading those three, you will have a relatively decent idea on what sort of traits your character might have if their height was also a defining trait.

Now, if the height of your character doesn't really matter at all, then I would suggest anywhere from 170cm - 190cm for male OC's, and 160cm-180cm for female OC's. Just for your reference, here are some Fairy Tail heights - keep in mind that these heights are not 100% official, they are taken from estimates and sources, but I think these numbers wouldn't be too far off from the real thing.

Elfman Strauss: 203cm

Laxus Dreyar: 190cm

Gray Fullbuster/Gajeel Redfox: 185cm

Natsu Dragneel: 175cm

Lucy Heartfilia: 162cm

Levy McGarden: 147cm

All in all, if the height of your OC really doesn't matter, then just pick a random number between those intervals. The upper and lower ranges of the interval wouldn't make your OC overly tall or short, so they it wouldn't really be a defining character trait, nor would it be something worth noticing from other characters.

For the male OC example, I will go with 184cm tall.

For the female OC example, I will be going with 165cm tall.

**Body Type: **For body type, what you have here could determine the life style of your OC, as well as their combat style.

Ex. If they live a healthy diet, or perhaps even a paleolithic diet (only meat, fruits, and vegetables), then they will likely be absent of fat tissue; how much muscle they have is determined by other factors.

Now, there's probably no need go into such detail about body types, but I think we can assume that, despite Fairy Tail being in a fantasy setting, it probably follows the same rules as real life in terms of health and nutrition.

Meaning, if you eat like a pig, you will look like a pig, if you eat healthy and exercise, you will look healthy.

So, when it comes to body type, what sort of body types are we talking about?

For those of you that don't know, there are three main body types in real life: Mesomorph, Endomorph, and Ectomorph. In short, these body types are basically: Endomorph: Strongmen, Ectomorph: Dancer (not break dancing), Mesomorph: Athlete.

So, for the most part, mages in Fairy Tail are either Ectomorph or Mesomorph - although you could say Gildarts is Endomorph despite him being drawn with a leaner physique.

Anyways, what sort of body type should we pick for the OC? That all depends on what you have planned for the OC really. If you have an endomorph OC, chances are they would be power-based, capable of lifting heavy and punching hard, but isn't that great in terms of speed and dexterity.

Mesomorphs would have decent speed and strength; they would be more mechanical fighters instead of the running in and brawling that I would imagine endomorphs doing.

Ectomorphs would be speed and dexterity based (a lot of people like having OC's in this area for some reason), they would likely thrive off of quick, precise strikes while using their superior maneuverability to dodge the enemy. Look at Jet for example; he is someone who uses speed-magic and he basically looks like a stick.

Now, some authors might want to subvert tropes by making some fat ass character that is faster than speed-type characters. Personally? You can do it if you want, I just think it doesn't make sense. Sure, a fat ass wizard saint is probably faster than a stick fodder mage, but if the fat mage's opponent was a mage of equal skill? He's going to get fodderized in terms of speed.

Another example would be Duke Everlue. Despite his dive magic, can you really see him outrunning Jet? What about Jellal? Please answer no, seriously.

For the male OC example, he would be a Mesomorph that is roughly the same build as Gray and Natsu.

For the female OC, she would also be Mesomorph with a build that is a cross between Lucy/Levy. Basically, NORMAL proportions.

For those of you that are making a female OC, you DON'T need to make them have ludicrously ZZZ sized breasts. They can be normal - C or D cup.

**Weight: **This section will be a lot shorter compared to height; however, I will still go slightly into this topic JUST in case someone decided to make this a defining trait.

Now, some of you might be thinking, there's only fat or skinny right? Should this even BE a separate section considering it should be under body types? While I will be talking about weight in body types, I wanted to talk about weight because it extends beyond people being insecure about being too skinny or too fat.

However, I will just say it first; if you are writing a character that is fat or skinny, look at the example I used for height. Is the weight going to an important character trait for your OC? If not, just put them as average for their height/body type.

So, for the _real _reason I wanted this particularly section.

It is density.

If you had some sort of OC that had the ability to alter his own mass as some sort of mass/weight magic, you could actually play his weight depending on the situation - imagine a branch of Brandish's magic but more geared towards rapid instantaneous changes.

I will likely be expanding on this type of magic in the later 'let's build an OC' sections, but a character that can alter his own weight could easily have characters that encounter them as a brick wall, or even as a feather. This would change how certain characters interact with them, especially if the OC in question made themselves heavier/lighter normally to make their lives easier/harder.

Ex. Doubling their own weight normally as training or halving their weight to run between places faster.

Remember, you don't have to restrict yourself with common meters associated with a certain trait. Hell, you could play off an OC that is a different race altogether, such as a race of sentient stone-men that weigh many times more than normal, allowing them to be far more sturdy - albeit slow as fuck.

**Eye Colour: **For those of you that have read the original Trope Discussions, you probably know of my utter loathing for the unbelievable amount of asspulling that goes into the eye colour of original characters.

So many OC creators think to themselves 'My OC with one eye blue and one eye green is SO original!' Well, I can't even begin to tell you how wrong you are. Frankly, ignoring the 'authors can create whatever character they want bullshit,' I'm just going to say this: creating a compelling character means making a character that is relatable. Guess what isn't relatable? Absolutely crazy Yu-gi-oh level hair and eye colours when most if not all of the characters in the series don't have it - at least if you are adding it for the literally sake of having a 'cooler' character design.

Remember, if you are adding an extremely unique trait (even in the series itself), just for the sake of 'OMG MY CHARACTER IS SO COOL,' then I would suggest toning it down.

Remember x2, for those of you that recognize the sentences above, you don't have to make your character 'omg, so boring, brown everything, literally the average, average of averages with nothing standing out whatsoever and can probably fill the place of an unmoving background.'

So, before I start suggesting the eye colour, what are some things we should avoid first? The biggest, BIGGEST thing is heterochromia. I spoke about it a little bit in the original discussions, but basically what it is, is having eyes with different colours.

This could be brown and black, blue and green, or god forbid GOLD AND SILVER. GOD NO.

Now that you know that you shouldn't have unnecessarily uncommon eye colours without good reason. Good reason being - notable family histories that had these eye colours, _why _this family has certain eye colours - as in, maybe they have certain eye colours that are common in other parts of Ishgar, and the OC originates from there.

If you have a character that comes from the Pergrande Kingdom, you could weave it into your world building notes saying that violet eyes is the brown eyes of the country, then you could expand on that fact and write a backstory for your character that is more than the 'unspecified village destroyed by dark mages, found by random dragon out of nowhere, then dumped into Fairy Tail just to change nothing.'

No matter how much you think the sentence prior is stupid, believe me when I say, THAT is more common than you think.

Anyways, moving on to decide what colour the OC shall have.

For the male OC example, he will have blue eyes.

For the female OC example, she will have green eyes.

On an extra note, try not to describe blue/green eyes with deep ocean, electric, forest, or cerulean - those are common colour tropes that move into purple prose territory.

**Hair: **Hair is something just as abused upon by OC authors as the eye colour. Ranging from dragon-braided helicopter hair to literally the colours of the rainbow.

Now, assuming that I don't need to go over the 'unnecessary vibrant colour of style' shit again, let us move on!

When it comes to hair, instead of just going with whatever you think is cool, try to think deeper. As in, how would the personality of the character affect their choice in hair style? Would someone that is generally unmotivated have unkempt hair? Would some insecure about their looks obsess over every small detail about their hair? Would a more arrogant outward projecting OC spike their hair to feel tougher?

Not just personality, but would a speed type mage, or even someone in the rune knights, have a certain style to complement their fighting style? It could even be for a reason in the army where you cut your hair short to wear the army hats better (at least I think that's why they do it, correct me if I am wrong).

Moving on from style, let us go to colour. In Fairy Tail, having vibrant colours isn't something out of the norm, as there are various shades of blue, green, purple, black, white, etc. Something that would be considered 'unnecessarily vibrant' would be actual rainbow hair, or even duo-coloured hair such as Todoroki from BNHA.

So, what colour of hair would he have? While some OC authors want every part of their OC's appearance to match their magic, I would suggest something in the middle. Such as blue eyes and blonde hair - pretty common European combination.

You don't need to go all-out average boring Joe Guy with brown hair and brown eyes with the 'appearances don't matter or it's what on the inside.' It's all about balancing the act.

Just a note, appearances shouldn't match up exactly with the OC's abilities - especially not for the sake of making them cool.

Ex. Don't make an Ice Dragon Slayer with Icy Blue Eyes, Icy Blue Hair, Icy Blue just about fucking everything.

That is Mary Sue territory. Do try to stray from there, aite?

If you ARE going to do it regardless, there are some easy ways you could explain it through backstory.

You could say the OC dyed their hair. Yes, hair dye exists. Next.

You could make it so certain types of magics used over multiple generations could actually change the way characters look - then make this a consistent thing for all characters in the story.

You could say that certain people in the family line preferred certain physical traits as it accents their magic - such as Endeavor going for quirk marriages. An Ice mage could go for blue eyes or blue hair.

REMEMBER, anything you write to justify the appearance, SHOULD be mentioned in the story. Do it in a way that weaves it, don't just mass paragraph drop in the first chapter the moment the OC joins Fairy Tail or whatever just to get it over with. That's just lazy writing.

Even MORE not to do, is not writing in at all and only bringing it up to justify it to reviewers that ask the question - seriously, big FAT no. If your reviewer has questions, and the story doesn't address it later on, change some parts in the story to weave it in.

Anyways, the male OC example will have black hair.

The female OC example will have cyan hair.

**Notable Features: **What do I mean by notable features? This is basically the first thing someone might notice when they see the OC. It doesn't have to be something extra; it could even be apart of their clothing.

You don't need to add seventy-five different scars on your OC for no goddamned reason, unless years of fighting is a part of your OC's backstory.

Ex. Older OC that is a War Veteran - they might have scars running all over his body.

To get a better picture of what I am talking about, let us look at some of the notable features of the canon cast.

Natsu: Now, having vibrant hair colour is pretty common in the story, Natsu's pink hair probably wouldn't stand out _that _much. Correct me if I'm wrong, although I do think Natsu was addressed by his hair colour - this could just be FN so if not then just ignore.

So, for Natsu, what would people see first? They might see his scarf, since it is supposed to be made out of Igneel's scales or something. They might also see the Fairy Tail symbol that is blatantly obvious on his right deltoid.

Lucy: Since most women in Fairy Tail has massive tits, that particular feature wouldn't be the first thing of attention - unless to characters that are inherently perverted.

Nothing particularly stands out about her appearance, although her chain of keys is something to note. It is what identifies her as a celestial wizard and can certainly be something of interest.

Gray: Gray's is pretty obvious. Considering his stripping habit, many people who meet him would see him clothe-less. The results of this particular trait would likely be the most notable feature.

Erza: Erza, unlike most other characters, wears plate armour as her normal attire. This would be a rather notable feature, as it is something uncommon in the Fairy Tail universe. Someone who sees her for the first time might likely divert their attention to the particular piece of attire, simply because of its uniqueness.

So, knowing some of the notable features of other characters, what sort of trait/physical feature would your OC have for their 'first' impression?

_Dual coloured eyes._

No, fuck off.

_WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP woop woop woop…._

Anyway, I imagine the example male OC to be someone that is generally introverted as well as being edgy in his choice of clothing. Instead of carrying a black katana or some other cliché shit, his notable feature could simply be most of the clothes he wears is dark/black. Not necessarily a bad thing mind you, despite what some others think about black clothing. This choice of his would make him stand out in comparison if everyone else was wearing bright clothing.

For the female example OC, she could be nerd just like Levy - Levy studies old magics and such, this OC could be someone well versed in the more physical sciences. To go with this, the OC could be wearing circular glasses and be carrying a backpack everywhere. While not really uncommon, these could be some defining traits that a person would notice first.

**Clothing: **Ahh, clothing. This is somewhere that gets to new OC authors, ESPECIALLY IN DESCRIBING THEM. JESUS PEOPLE YOU DON'T NEED TO DESCRIBE EVERY FUCKING INCH OF CLOTHING ON AN OC, CHRIST.

Did you guys know that you could add detail for the OC in multiple different parts? As in, you DON'T have to describe every fucking thing the first time they appear.

_WAIT, I DON'T?_

Nope.

Anyways, clothing is something that isn't inherently important - by itself at least. You could have certain pieces of clothing that your character wears be tied to certain character traits or memories - such as Natsu wearing his scarf because it was a gift from Igneel, or Erza wearing her armour because it made her feel safe from her times being a slave.

We can get to the backstory/character traits later, but for now, let us think of something that the OC(s) might wear on a regular basis.

Now, I get that characters can have lots of variety in their wardrobe, but there's usually a set of clothing that they would wear above all else.

Ex. Erza's Heart Kreuz armour.

Ex2. Natsu's vest.

Ex3. Laxus' fur coat.

For the OC's, what would they wear normally? Their first choice of attire would likely be linked to their hobbies and way of life as well.

For the male OC, he would likely be wearing a black coat similar to Kirito because that's the edgiest thing I can think of, black trousers, boots, maybe a leather belt, and a black plaid shirt. Just from the appearance of this character, he seems to be a devote fan of Evanescence, doesn't he? So for the most part, this would what the OC wears when he goes on missions, when he goes out and goes into the guild.

If he was inside his house, he might be wearing something else, such as a tank top and some shorts (standard indoor wear).

For the female OC, considering we have established that she would be nerdy. It is likely she would wear something that accents this, likely with many pockets as well. Remember, this girl is NOT an OC that flexes on looks. I can see her wearing slightly baggy cargo pants with lots of pockets to carry equipment that would not be in her backpack. I can also see her wearing lab-coat like wear indoors and likely have a technological advanced insulated jacket with a lot of pockets when she does go out.

**Description: **When you are describing your OC's, the best way in my opinion, is to imagine the OC walking up to you, and imagine what you notice first. If you are someone that can notice every earring, ring, and accessory on someone you just saw, then go right ahead. If you're not, then I would suggest not overly describing the appearance of an OC in purple prose.

Have any of you guys heard of the 'laundry list' description? Basically, what that is, is a description of your OC's appearance, but in point form, wrapped in a paragraph.

Excerpt go!

_'He was wearing a high-collared plaid shirt, covered by the thick leather jacket on top. He had earrings on both ears, and a piercing on his nose. He was also wearing fitting trousers held up by a belt. On his feet, there was boots that seemed to be stained with mud. On his fingers, he wore two rings each containing a diamond of purple and blue respectively. He was also wearing a red scarf that covered the majority of his neck.'_

The excerpt above is probably the most common type of description - ESPECIALLY IN NARUTO CROSSOVERS WHILE THEY ARE DESCRIBING NARUTO.

There is almost no sentence variety, and the entire paragraph just reads as 'He was wearing *blah*' from top to bottom. If you find yourself doing this, consider taking out some details and combining it with action. Also, consider leaving some details to later paragraphs.

So how would I describe the appearances of OC's? Here, I'll give it a go, assuming this is third person objective.

Male OC:

_'A tanned man of above-average height entered the room, his appearance consisted of black all the way from his boots to his short, spiked hair. As he continued in, one could see a brown belt holding up his trousers, constantly being obscured by the waving of his cloak.'_

Ehh, could do better, but whatever. Just from this paragraph, you could probably get a decent image of what he looked like, cloth-wise. Considering there are no descriptions about his face, only thing we know is that his hair would be similar to Gray's, he would basically be dressed like Kirito, and there would be a brown belt that stands out from all the black.

Now, there would likely be more details of the OC, his eye colour, the shape of his nose, potential scars, where his Fairy Tail mark is, etc. Those small details could be described later on in another scene when he is talking with someone else. And no, you don't have to write it like this.

'Blue met Green as the OC's looked at one another.'

Not necessarily bad, but I've seen so many people describe eye colours like this. It feels like forced sentence variety and is a little bit too weird for me.

Anyways, descriptions should give a general idea of what the OC looks like from top to bottom. You don't need to describe how many pockets or buttons are on the clothing unless it is important. Keep to the general impression of what they would give when walking into a room.

Female OC:

_'As the man walked in, his eyes landed on a peculiar cyan-haired girl sitting alone. She had a backpack whose size was only matched by the jacket that puffed beyond her small proportions. A hand flicked away strands of unkempt cyan hair, clearing her sight though the circular glasses that was pressed into a rather old-looking tome.'_

A little bit towards the prosey side, but it will do for now. Anyways, this is a narrative/objective form of describing people. Basically, this is how I would describe an appearance when there is no specific POV or internal monologue. If there _was _a specific POV or internal monologue. Then I would do something like this.

'_Always the bookworm, she's got a backpack bigger than her whole body! Not only that, does she really need to wear that jacket while inside… really makes her look like some of Eskimo with how puffy that thing is. The man scowled in irritation. Seriously, she should really brush her hair! It's going to get stuck to her glasses one of these days, and I'LL have to pay for it again.'_

Notice how in the different excerpts, one of them basically looked like it was a close-up scene from a narrator, while the other was describing the character through the view of another character. Personally, I would suggest doing this for anyone not your main character. This makes the story a lot more immersive and can reveal certain interactions in the past between the characters.

**Conclusion: **So anyways, now that you managed to reach the bottom, what is the underlying wisdom to be taken here?

It is NOT, make the dullest dullard ever dulled in dull-ville, but to actually create a likable character that matches their personality and not have rainbow shit all over the place.

If you are going to give the OC uncommon traits, think of a decent reason and weave it into your backstory. **DON'T** LAUNDRY LIST DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER AND **DON'T** FACT DUMP.

Try to have your character's appearance relate to their life style, magic, fighting style, and personality. Not everything is about completely being a perfect match for their magic. Ex. Ice Dragon Slayer where her entire persona is basically cosplaying Greenland.

Bottom line is, think about the different attributes your character will have. Does it match with the way they talk, the way they walk, and the way they solve issues? Having a Sue trait for the sake of being cool is bad. Having a Sue trait because it matches the character's backstory and balances certain flaws is okay.

Remember, balance is not achieved by having a straight line, it is by having a series of troughs and crests that AVERAGES into a straight line.

I mean with that logic; you could basically create a dual-eye-coloured rainbow-haired elemental dragon slayer that has twelve different types of cancer. But seriously though, crests and troughs aside, do try to watch with the extremes.

See you guys next time!

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	2. CH2 - OC Creation: Magic

**Chapter 2 - OC Creation: Magic**

**Hopefully, for those of you that read Chapter 1, you now have a pretty good idea on building the appearance of your character. We will go over importance of appearance later, but for the most part, choosing an appearance for your OC is mainly to make them more memorable to the audience - and to yourself as well.**

**This piece will not be anywhere as long as the original Trope Discussions which somehow clocked in at over 109,000 words, Jesus Christ. That's more asspulling than Mashima-Senpai himself! **

…

**Okay, so before I start with building and going through the mechanics of magic, I want to reiterate some of the stuff from last chapter. **

**First and foremost: There are ZERO requirements for writing an OC. You could basically just take some random image from google and just insert it if you want, and still manage to write a compelling story. However, writing stories is about the WHOLE package. Sure, a master baker can still make a delicious cake with shit ingredients, but he can damned well make something infinitely better with high-quality ingredients. **

**What I am saying is, even if you **_**don't**_** need to think of all the different attributes of the character, going above and beyond with your OC can really help immerse the story. Creating all the specifics and really diving deep into character creation is as much for you as it is for the story and reader. **

**Even IF you don't really reveal the details in the story, just having it as side notes could help in keeping the character in character, have them react the way their established personality would have them react, and have them accomplish things that they are previously established to be able to accomplish (or perhaps near their previous limits to show improvement). **

**This helps in avoiding plot holes, inconsistencies, and allows you to catch yourself making an OOC moment because you know your own character inside and out.**

**P.S. While not needing to do it for EVERY character, having a character sheet for every single character you plan on writing with a main role will do wonders for your story. Even doing it for side characters can really increase the quality of certain interactions. **

**It all depends just how much you are willing to put into your story. For the bare minimum though, I would suggest doing it for at least your main OC.**

**P.S.2 I will write a chapter on how I do my character data sheets for reference later on. **

**P.S.3 IF YOU ALREADY MAKE CHARACTER DATA SHEETS, MAKE SURE TO NOT POST THEM IN YOUR STORY.**

**SERIOUSLY GUYS, SHOW, DON'T TELL.**

**Anyways, let us begin!**

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**Introduction to Magic: **What am I talking about when it comes to magic? In this chapter, I will be covering the creation of certain magics, establishing headcanon, potential fighting styles with specific magics, and many more.

To start, let us take the definition of magic directly from the Fairy Tail Wiki.

_'Magic is the physical embodiment of the spirit. When the physical spirit of an organism connects with the spiritual flow of nature, the spirit forms Magic as a product of the connection. Only ten percent of the world's population is able to use Magic, which is noted to keep a balance between ordinary people and those with Magic. It takes an enormous amount of concentration and mental ability to use Magic. According to Zeref, ones strength of feelings places an important part in Magic.'_

From the paragraph above, we can start building towards the magic for our OC.

**Choosing a Magic: **Before we start, one thing I would like to say, is that many OC authors tend to go straight towards the OC Dragon Slayer route. While not inherently bad (as in suddenly being a dragon slayer won't make your story straight doggo-trash); however, many authors who write Dragon Slayer OC's tend to follow a certain trend.

They would have a Natsu copy with one of the four elements (or little girl with Ice Dragon Slayer), have them use basically the same moves as Natsu except changed to fit the element, and then write the story in a way that does not change canon whatsoever (what a fatalist story is), and even have the OC take/join battles from the canon cast.

There are countless numbers of magics that you can use, and you (like thousands of others), chose some arbitrary slayer element. Again, this is not story breaking, but personally, chose something for a change. Not every OC needs to be some Ice Dragon Slayer named Fuyu Iciclus or whatever the fuck.

So, before choosing the magic, let's take a look at the example OC's.

The male OC dresses edgily and is basically covered in black. This does _not _mean he has to use some form of darkness magic. That's just straight up predictable and I would personally recommended _against _that. There are many magics that would be 'neutral' when it comes to fitting the appearance, and there would also be magics that would 'go against' the character's design.

Ex. The male OC using some sort of summoning magics but only summons bright pink ponies. While it isn't that story breaking, the sheer absurdity and how bad the magic fits could throw off some people.

For the male OC, I shall go with shift magic - the ability to switch the places of objects instantaneously.

Now, the female OC basically looks like an explorer/nerd hybrid. Just from the character design, I feel as if her magic wouldn't be that suited for combat. Considering she would be constantly studying sciences and perhaps going outdoors to collect 'samples,' I believe her magic will be able to help her achieve this in some way or form.

For the female OC, I will be going with Enchanting magic (like Irene), and the mechanics/limitations can be ironed out later.

All in all, choosing a magic should be one of the most fun parts of making an OC. It really doesn't what magic you choose, because with enough world building, you can make anything work. One thing I would recommend though, is choosing something that would fit your OC in some way or form. As in, something in their backstory that would make them more inclined to go with that particular magic, certain personality traits that would lead them towards a certain magic, or even having a particular talent towards an aspect of life that would make them learn a supplementary magic.

Ex. Levy being a bookworm so she learned Solid Script.

Ex2. A master carpenter learning wood magic.

Do try to deviate from the 'random dragon dead village' trope. Again, not inherently bad, but to me, it just seems like lazy writing.

**Establishing Headcanon: **What does 'establishing headcanon' mean? For some of you, this might be an unfamiliar term, but headcanon basically means the details about canon characters or magic in YOUR story.

Ex. Natsu and Lisanna being a couple in your story despite Natsu went with Lucy in the canon story would be your specific headcanon.

Headcanon doesn't have to be different from canon, headcanon simply refers to the details, mechanics, and generally how your specific story universe is.

Knowing that, how do we establish our headcanon? This particular area is going to require a lot of world building, but for now, we will just be focusing on the magic.

Note: Everyone's headcanon will be different; how one person handles magic (dragon slayer magic for example), could be different from how someone else handles it. This means, there could be different mechanics to activating dragon force, a story could even remove the dual elemental magic shown in canon, or even go absolutely nuts and go triple or even quad elemental.

For this particular OC-verse, I will be establishing some of the more general things - what I am stating is also the same as my own headcanon.

Magic is difficult to learn, which means OC's that are 12-year-old would not be able to use ten different magics after 1-2 years of training.

Many mages have some sort of affinity to certain types of magic, making that specific type easier to learn.

Subcategories of the same magic can be learned with significantly greater ease. For example, someone learning fire magic would be able to master ember magic, or even lava magic relatively quicker than someone starting from scratch.

There are general magics that anyone can learn without much difficult, including: basic requip/storage, martial magic (using magic to boost physical capabilities), basic telekinesis, basic seal magic.

Strength of will can impact the responsiveness of magic, someone filled with anger would be able to put more magic in a spell that they are normally able to - but they cannot restore their magic containers if their reserves are running low.

Ex. Natsu would be able to use Nakama power because his will allows him to pump out more magic, but if he is completely out of magic, no amount of Nakama power will allow him to use a spell.

Dragon Slayers can use dragon force by forcibly pumping mass amounts of their own magic into their body, forcing the transformation. Doing so without ingesting their element is taxing to their reserves, even if it greatly boosts all combat capabilities for a short time.

This headcanon is just a few of the rules I established in my own story. ALL characters will be bound by these rules. However, if you create an OC with an affinity with everything JUST to circumvent those already established rules, then it's basically a Mary Sue.

**Mechanics: **Building on the headcanon, we will move on to mechanics. So, what are mechanics? Easy. They are the numbers, the specifications, the limits, the how's, fighting techniques, and the science behind what makes magic works. We can go truly in-depth on how magic exists but unless you are writing a story centering on the Bureau of Magical Development, then there is really no need.

Before we move onto the OC examples, I will give a give a few canon examples on how we can get define or create certain mechanics.

Let's say for Natsu, we can add more specifics to his magic, rather than just him punching harder with more fire.

Let's say Natsu is capable of dragon force. Following the headcanon section, if he were to flood his body with his dragon slayer magic, then he will be able to manually induce the enhanced state. However, if Natsu eats a massive amount of high-quality flames, then the magic he gains will be too much for his container to handle, instead entering his body, forcing him into dragon force.

Remember when Natsu was able to use his fire to grab things during the Eisenwald arc? If Natsu was able to use his flames as a tangible arm, then he could technically swing himself around like Tarzan to close in the gap between him and his enemy. He can also use this particular ability to grab his enemies, burning them at the same time, then reel them in for another strike.

It was never specified in canon if Natsu was capable of controlling the heat of his fire. However, if we follow the science of real life and assume it's roughly the same in canon, then we can say the majority of Natsu's fire (being orange and red), would be 525C to 1,000C - although I think it is the low side. I plan on adding temperature control in my own story, where the heat goes from red, to orange, to blue, then to white. Perhaps it might be possible for Natsu to learn how to generate plasma later in the story, although this would be unlikely as plasma is 30,000C.

Anyways, if Natsu having temperature control is in the headcanon, then the mechanics of him doing it would be something as follows: Natsu uses more magic, compressing it to force more energy into the flames, but having the same volume. Basically, for Natsu to raise the temperature of his flames, he will need enough control to be able to compress his flames near-instantaneously.

For another example, let's look at Gray's magic.

In canon, Gray was always using Static Ice-Make magic. After the Tartaros Arc, he would use Ice Devil Slayer magic to boost his original magic when he eventually received it from his father. What if for our headcanon, Gray was capable of using dynamic as well, but with less skill than Lyon - who would have less skill in static compared to Gray.

So, if you would to combine static and dynamic, then Gray could technically do something like: Ice-Make: Car! Basically, he would make a sentient car that could roadkill his enemies. He might also be able to create similar animal creations as Lyon, but make Ice Weapons for his creations to wield to make them more deadly.

If Gray was able to do this, then what would the specific requirements be for him to do so? Let's say, Ice-Make (like other maker magics), is to focus magic at a focal point, have a clear image in your head, and then expel the magic out. Then, the magic will do its work, and create whatever you were thinking. Of course, being distracted would either change the creation itself or nothing would come out.

For dynamic Ice-make magic, let's say the caster has to imprint a bit of their magic inside the spell _after_ the creation process. Which means, they need to expend the magic to create whatever spell they were using (let's say Ice-Make: Snow Ape), _then_ put in a bit of their magic to make it move on its own - the physical strength of their creations would depend on the proportional magic they receive. Basically, if barely any magic was put in after the creation process, then they would be no different then static sculptures of living beings.

Remember how Ur said one-handed creations were unstable? We could add in mechanics to explain why that is. Let's say, when an Ice-Make mage uses two hands to create the magic, the Ethernano in the mage's body flows in tandem, equally to both arms, thus making the spell complete AND stable. Someone using just one hand could throw off this flow of magic, making the creations far less balanced.

The explanation of this could be the magical bonds keeping the spell together is extremely still when done with two hands, while doing it with one hand causes those same bonds to move and grind against each other because of the creation process, decreasing stability.

Keep in mind, I basically pulled all of the shit regarding Gray out of my ass within minutes. So, if I can make something that could pass off as believable, then you can easily do the same thing with the time it takes you to write an author's note. However, if that author's note telling your readers how you were sick or had finals is more important than writing a compelling story, well, then you do you.

Anyways, let's move on.

Shift Magic - Male OC

Okay, first and foremost, we have to define things that this magic CANNOT do. Not what the OC using it can't do, but what is actually _impossible _with this magic alone.

**Unpassable Limits:** 1) Users of this magic CANNOT switch places with atoms, or things they cannot directly see. This means, if a caster has particularly good vision, they would be able to trade places with a speck of dust.

Building on the previous rule, users of this magic CANNOT teleport themselves across the continent. At most, they would be able to switch with something at the horizon, but it will have to be something they can SEE. This cannot be bypassed by 'sensing' an object with anything other than sight.

Casters of this magic CANNOT switch things that are greater mass then their own body. Which means, if the OC tried to switch places with Gildarts, nothing will happen. Due to this rule, they would _not _be able to switch with mountains or trees in the distance.

The three rules above is something that NO caster can bypass under ANY circumstances using this magic. If they end up creating a more advanced form to do so, then they are no longer using the original magic - therefore the rules weren't broken. The first rule, is also a cross between unpassable and passable limits. While the caster cannot switch with anything they cannot see, someone learning magic to enhance their vision could potentially switch between far smaller things than normal.

Now that we have established things the OC CANNOT do under any circumstance, unless they learn another magic which would have a _new _set of rules, then we can now move on to limits that depend on the caster.

**Passable Limits:** 1) Switch speed: The speed of the switch itself determines on the caster, while the movement is instantaneous, the factors of speed actually comes from cast time. From the beginning of the switch to the actual switch could take seconds for a novice, while an expert user in the magic can switch multiple times a second, and in succession.

Switch distance: Despite the absolute rule being sight and the distance to the horizon, not every caster could have the expertise to switch over certain distances.

Ex. The OC at canon start is unable to switch with anything beyond 100m, even IF he can see it.

Magic Cost: A new user of this magic could end up draining themselves after a single switch, while an expert in the magic could be far more efficient, taking thousands of switches to drain themselves.

Number of objects switched: Other than just switching the position of the caster themselves and an object, the caster could actually switch multiple objects at once.

Ex. A user could switch himself behind the enemy for a flank while simultaneously switching his team mates with another object to get them out of harm.

Knowing these limits, we know have to establish the upper limits of this magic. This could be done by writing in previous users of this magic, or even having the OC speculate on what he would be able to do (although this might be inaccurate).

Let's say the greatest practitioner of this magic was some guy named Oni'kas. Instead of direct specifics, his feats could be told through legends or even as stories with truth in it.

For the first one, let's say Oni'kas was able to travel from one side of Ishgar to the other after breakfast, and be back before lunch. Now, you might be thinking, WAIT, you can't teleport past the horizon, even with a legendary mage!

Well, despite the story, what if Oni'Kas was indeed able to teleport distances close to the horizon, but was able to do it at such speeds, that Oni'Kas could basically clear 5-10 kilometers every second. If Ishgar was comparable to the size of Europe, being anywhere from 2,000km to 4,000km, then he would be able to clear 18,000km - 36,000km at MAX speed in one hour. If this was already on his upper limits, Oni'Kas could have made a few dozen jumps, took a few minutes to rest, and repeat it, achieving the feat that went into legend.

This little bit of world building could establish the known passable limits of this magic, meaning this would be something the OC would strive to overcome, and is unlikely to achieve until the very end of the story - such as in Alvarez.

Other than Oni'Kas, let's say we have another person that used the magic (doesn't have to be related to the OC with the powerful family trope or whatever the fuck kids like to use), and this was someone named Vaisa.

Let's say instead of being able to switch long distances in quick succession, Vaisa went a different direction. What if Vaisa was able to switch between so many different objects, it earned her the name 'Shuffler.' Basically, she would be so adept at switching in a certain area, that in battle, she would be popping up in all directions, and have rocks or other debris constantly hindering her opponents.

So, in terms of frequency and quantity, Vaisa would be superior to Oni'Kas. However, Oni'Kas would be superior in distance and endurance.

While creating legendary mages or even just previous practitioners isn't necessary, doing so could allow you to weave in the upper limits of your OC's magic WITHOUT just information dumping. What I mean by information dumping is have your OC go into Fairy Tail on Chapter 1, then have the entire Fairy Tail cast listen to an exposition of what the OC can or cannot do - only for the OC's Sue-ness basically completely contradict the original limits which defeats the purpose of even having it in the first place.

Excerpt go!

_'I can switch up to 100 meters, and it takes me about 2-3 seconds to perform a single switch at that distance. I can switch faster if its closer, but I can't switch something that is heavier than I am. Also, my dream is to surpass Oni'Kas who was capable of traversing great distances within a short amount of time.'_

Now, imagine that being an ACTUAL paragraph of dialogue in the story. I can understand why you might do this, because it removes the need to weave in the world building, which regrettably, takes WAY more work. My advice? Do try to not be lazy alright? If you're going to write a story, give everything you got.

For some final mechanics, let us imagine the OC falling to his death, and he needed to switch with something to get to safety. Once he does, does he splatter anyway from the previous momentum? Or does the kinetic energy completely reset? Since the magic is basically teleporting from place to place, the kinetic energy effectively 'switches' as well. Which means the rock will be falling at the same speed he was, and the OC would be stationary where the rock (or other object) is.

It is important for you to iron out details such as this in certain situations, so readers don't get confused on the mechanics of magic.

Enchantment Magic - Female OC

Enchantment magic is far more versatile compared to shift magic, which means that the limits of what it can or cannot do is blurred. Most of this would likely be reliant on the user - as Irene was strong enough to enchant a shuffler spell on a country the size of France basically.

**Unpassable Limits: **1) The user has to be in direct contact of whatever they are enchanting to perform a spell.

I did think of limits, but most of them would be in the 'passable' category. The only thing I can think of that would make sense for enchantment magic is having to be in some form of direct contact with the object. Otherwise, a mage could technically enchant from tens of kilometers away. While it COULD work if it had the same sight limits, but being able to enchant at such a distance would make expert practitioners of magic extremely broken.

Not even Irene looked like she was able to enchant things from massive distance (correct me if I'm wrong). With the Universe one spell, she was touching the ground, despite having such a powerful spell, she would not break the unpassable limit in the headcanon.

**Passable Limits:** 1) The first passable limit I can think of it the area of effect. Where perhaps a novice user would only able to effect a bubble not too much larger than their own body. The absolute highest tier caster (such as Irene) would be able to effect entire countries.

There are many ways you could go towards the AOE, but I think area would be the easiest method of measure. Instead of going volume, which might involve more calculation than it's worth, having the surface area of whatever they are enchanting decide their limits is good enough here.

The next limit would be the number of enchantments the user can cast at the same time. Now, this is _not _the number of enchantments that the caster can have active. With enchantment magic, I'm making it so once the enchantment magic is cast, the enchantment will remain as long as there is enough magic supporting it. Which means, if the caster were to create some sort of self-regenerating matrix, then the enchantment would last indefinitely.

Let's say, at the beginning of canon, the OC would only be able to cast one enchantment at a time, and the upper tier enchantments might even take far longer, which brings us to the next limit.

Speed of enchantment: For enchantment magic, I have think of it as a more intuitive form of seal magic (like Freed's Jutsu Shiki). While some enchantments may require the usages of seals, the main part of enchantment magic would be similar to maker magic - imagining the effects, having a clear focus, and channeling the magic in the correct way.

For a novice, it might take seconds just to do a simple reinforcing enchantment (make an object more durable), but for someone like Irene, most if not all enchantments can be done in an instant.

Now, I have already given an example on how to world build upper limits. Irene is already a good example on what an enchanter could do at the ABSOLUTE HIGHEST. By following the examples I have given above, you can easily make something similar with enchantment magic.

Ex. An enchanter who managed to enchant an entire city and made it nearly indestructible to an invading force - starting some story called 'the city of steel' or whatever the fuck.

Since the female OC would be a nerd-type mage, you could actually expand a lot into the mechanics of magic, as it would fit her character to actually know about those stuff. This would allow world building of mechanics to be weaved in.

Anyways, to conclude this particular part, there are millions of different things you could add in for mechanics. What I listed above is what I recommend you to do so you have a good idea of what your OC would be able to do. Having such notes available can prevent your OC doing something that they should _not _be able to do at a certain time - or even have your OC _not _do what would have been logical _and _within their capabilities.

The more world building you do for your magic, the easier it is to gauge your OC(s) power level. This means, you won't have your OC defeat a wizard-saint class opponent, but still somehow be weaker than Natsu at canon (believe me, I've seen this happen A LOT).

My advice? Make as many notes as possible. While it is not required (if it was required there would be maybe 100 fics in total on Fairy Tail Fanfiction), doing so will set apart your story. It will also avoid the plot holes and inconsistencies that tend to plague OC fics.

**Assumptions of Skill: **This section will be a lot shorter compared to the previous one. What I mean by 'assumptions of skill' is basically what you, as the reader, would be able to assume a what a character is capable of by looking at comparable feats.

Note: This might be difficult as some people seemingly aren't capable of doing this, but I will explain how to do it.

Let's have a look at Gray for example. Mashima didn't do any training scene of him trying to do Ice-Make. A lot of the spells (such as his Ice-Make Unlimited spell), was basically pulled out from nowhere. Now, I know Mashima loves doing that, but I am going to use what he is shown to be able to do, to speculate on what he SHOULD be able to do.

Remember when Gray made Ice-Make Hammer? It is a simple spell that he uses often. By looking at the size and complexity of a hammer, we should be able to assume that, Gray would be able to create objects such as: Bats, swords, sticks, poles, bricks, doors, tables, chairs, or even just other simple objects.

At that point, we can assume that Gray would have the skill and strength to create objects of similar size and complexity, even if he has never created that specific object before.

Gray is definitely the easiest to have an example of. Other character such as Natsu have such weird scaling in terms of comparable feats that it's difficult to assume what else they are capable of doing.

But anyways, let's use the OC's as the next example.

Somewhere down the line (maybe near canon), the male OC was able to shift between objects inside the guild hall before people could even blink. Let's say, for the sake of argument, the OC also reacts well under pressure, which means he can easily dodge of switch within seconds of reacting to a potential threat.

This would mean that the shifting speed for THAT particular distance, would be a fraction of a second at the lowest, and maybe half a second at the most.

So, if the OC were to get pushed off the cliff, then he SHOULD be able to get himself to safety relatively quickly. Something that might change this is him being hit by some sort of drug that makes him barely conscious.

For the female OC, if there was a scene showing her enchanting a building the size of the guild hall (with some effort), then the OC SHOULD be able to enchant something of similar or smaller size as well, UNLESS, you have established that she was in a low-magic state and did not have enough reserves.

If this is indeed the case, don't just have your OC SAY she has low magic reserves, provide a scene or two showing them using up their magic.

On another note, if the OC takes 5 seconds to enchant a building the size of the guild hall, it should not take her 10 seconds to enchant something the size of herself. If this IS the case, then you have to weave in world building to establish there are certain factors that make enchantments take longer - such as the complexity of the enchantment.

Ex. Simple reinforcement enchantment vs multi-layered elemental resistance enchantment.

While there are many reasons on what could change the performance of the OC, it is important to have all these notes ready before you write certain scenes. If you forgot to add in a mechanic or factor, then someone points it out in a review, do _not, _and I mean DO NOT, _just_ reply to the review after the fact to justify what happened.

Am I saying to not reply to reviews? If you somehow got that from the paragraph above then I'm afraid you have autism of the highest degree.

Instead of justifying, EDIT the scene so that someone reading it WON'T have to ask the same question. Have all the mechanics and assumptions established in the story. And again, WEAVE it through world building, don't just have the OC spit out paragraphs and paragraphs of exposition that is basically a copy paste of the world building notes.

Here is an excerpt for a possible scene:

_'"How come that enchantment took so long?" Lucy questioned. _

_The struggling enchantment mage huffed, quickening the flow of sweat on her cheeks. "It's multi-layered! No where as easy as a simple reinforcing spell…"'_

With that short scene, readers like you would be able to assume - okay, that enchantment took longer because multi-layered enchantments are more complex than a reinforcing spell, therefore it will take longer proportionally to actually perform the enchantment.

If there are readers that are unable to assume this, then I would suggest putting an encyclopedia at the bottom of the chapter as an author's note because there will likely be more idiot readers that can't figure it out unless you actually pull an info dump.

**Advancing Skill: **For this section, advancing skill is what you can expect your OC to be capable of doing as the story progresses.

Ex. Your OC would be stronger during Tenrou than at start of canon, they would be even stronger at the GMG and more so after the 1-year time skip.

So what would be some of the spells that they work towards in these increments? Many OC authors like to simply scale the shit up of their spells and make up some edgelord name like 'Rising Dragon Demon Fang' or whatever the fuck and simply call world building done. While not story breaking, I would suggest actually world building levels that your character will reach as the story advances.

Take what I said about mechanics and passable limits, then have your character near the previously established upper limits of the particular magic. Then, used what I said about assumption of skill to create comparable spells from one you plan on showing after the strength increase.

Let's say after the one-year time skip, the male OC's expertise in switch magic is now comparable to Oni'Kai, which means you could have a scene where he goes from one end of Fiore to the other and back within maybe ten minutes.

This feat alone would put him on Oni'Kai's level, and all his combat abilities would be elevated to fit this new level of skill.

For the female OC, let's say during the Phantom Lord Arc, she was able to cast an enchantment that prevented the guild hall from being destroyed the first time by Gajeel due to heavy reinforcement enchantments placed over a period of time, THEN, at GMG, she could place the same level of reinforcement against the dragons, showing her progression.

If you want to get more specific and technical, you could even make notes regarding their magical power. Such as them being able to generate enough power to score 500 on the MPF, but after a scale-up period, they would be able to 1,000. This would effectively double their magical strength by itself.

This does not account for the increase in skill and efficiency. All in all, the mage's combat potential could have increased tenfold due to new spells, new tactics, more magic, and more efficient casting.

The reason why I recommend you to world build all these increases, is so your story doesn't suffer from what is known as Dragon Ball Syndrome. What that is, is basically when characters and enemies just get strong and stronger with no comparable methods of scaling, and the actual power creep becomes so unnecessary and immeasurable that the weight of their strength increase is basically null.

Again, not story breaking if you don't do this, but writing your story in a way where it allows comparable power scaling is something that _will _set your story apart from the sixty-thousand something Fanfiction in the Fairy Tail section.

**Secondary, Tertiary Magics, and onwards: **For those of you wondering, not all mages have to use only ONE magic. Many mages have slight knowledge of other magics that will help them in their journey, and some might even be masters of multiple subcategories of their main magic to bolster their own strength.

Ex. Makarov uses light magic, titan magic (which I assume is a light-based transformation magic), Light-based seal magic, and Fairy Light Magic (requirement to cast Fairy Law).

While I believe those four magics are his main magics, the Fairy Tail wiki says he is capable of other magics (although I believe to a lesser extent to his main magics).

Here is a list of other magics that Makarov was shown to use:

Fire Magic: At the beginning of Fairy Tail, Makarov was able to burn the documents with his magic and throw them to Natsu to eat, which means he was able to use fire magic (although to what extent is unknown).

Dispel Magic: He was capable of dispel Macao's transformation magic when he took Natsu's place.

Requip: After being attacked by Hades, Makarov was able to requip his robe and boots nearly instantaneously.

Ice and Wind Magic: While not particularly shown in the manga/anime, the wiki says Makarov is capable of using wind and ice magic. It is unknown to what extent, but I will assume is it comparable to his knowledge of Fire Magic.

Telepathy: I don't remember where he used telepathy, but the wiki mentions he has used this magic to communicate with others before.

Okay, so just from what he shown in the series, as well as what people said he is known to use, that makes Makarov a master of four minimum magics, and have some level of skill in six more, giving him ten magics in his repertoire. Of course, despite magic being inherently hard to use, it is not unreasonable to believe because Makarov is eighty-eight at the beginning of canon, giving him ample time to learn/master so many magics. Not only that, his main magics are still the four I mentioned earlier, which means he is not a complete master of every magic in that list.

What should NOT happen, is a 10-year-old OC sharing the same repertoire of magics as Makarov, and then the author explaining a bunch of limitations to justify the usage of ten magics - yes people fucking do this, if you are one of them, search up 'It's time to stop by Filthy Frank' on Google.

This is why I focused on secondary and tertiary magics. As a child, your OC should not be adept in two or even three main magics. For example, in my headcanon, Erza uses Requip, Telekinesis, Smith, and Martial Magic. Instead of having one magic of Requip, she combines three other magics together to allow her to fight and create so many sets of armour. She is a master of Requip, but uses a decent level of skill in the other three to allow her to fight the way she does.

So, for the secondary magics, I would suggest focusing on a single, primary magic, then selecting lesser magics that would aid the OC in some way of form - allowing them to use their primary magic better.

Let's say for the male OC, he uses slight requip, and eye-enhancement magic. This allows him to use his requip to pop objects in the air, switching with them. The eye-enhancement magic allows him to extend his range of switching.

Both of these magics by themselves wouldn't really do anything for him. However, when working in tandem with his primary, he is able to boost his combat potential by a significant margin.

For the female OC, we will need something to go with her enchantment magic. It is unlikely she will learn a magic that has nothing to do with enchantment or a magic that does nothing to help her enchantment out.

Considering she is a nerd-type character, I can imagine her being able to use archive magic to expand her knowledge on her enchantments, while also storing the knowledge that she learns from books and expeditions.

Now, you don't actually have to think of secondary/tertiary magics for every single OC you create. I personally think it is something common for mages to learn magics that would benefit their primary. In fact, you could say that Natsu knows more than one magic too. What if Natsu grabbing the train tracks was also a result of learning a secondary magic from Macao - instead of just randomly gaining the ability to grab things with basically combusted gas because of Nakama power.

If you are planning to add more magics, try to keep it at a lower amount. If the OC is a master of more than one magic, than is would be likely that those magics are related to one another - such as Laxus with lightning dragon slayer magic and regular lightning magic. If they have multiple magics, it is good to keep one as primary, with the other as lesser magics that the OC uses to bolster their abilities.

**Conclusion: **If you had the patience to read all the way here, then I want to reiterate, it is NOT required for you to do anything. If you want to write that elemental dragon slayer magic story with an OC that can beat Gildarts but is afraid of Erza, do go ahead, you can write whatever you want.

However, if you decide that you want to follow my advice, then world build! Find your balance somewhere, and remember too much mechanics is just as bad as too little.

Anyways, have fun creating your magic!

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**Chapter 2 Done! Next Chapter: Weapons and Companions!**

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	3. CH3 - Weapons and Companions

**Chapter 3 - Weapons and Companions**

**Okay, the magic chapter ended up becoming like a million times longer than I thought it would be (okay maybe only like 1.5-2 times but still). **

**Anyways, this particular chapter SHOULD be a lot shorter in comparison to the last. Most of the content will be how to play off 1 or 2 tropes in this section. **

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**Introduction: **For weapons and companions, I am mainly referring to the exceed partners, katanas, or if your imagination is greater than a potato, literally anything fucking else.

Just like in my own story, my character has companion(s) and as well as a go-to weapon. Many stories have it, and it's not bad, at all. Having a tool/weapon your character uses, or having a non-human companion are not inherently bad.

Ex. For Harry Potter, he had his wand and Hedwig (the owl) for his weapon/companion.

One of the main issues I have with these two things, is that more often than not, the weapon and/or companion would be in the form of a exceed and/or a katana. It's quite jarring to see how little people tend to stray from this, and it's often exactly the same in terms of how the OC receives it - exceed hatched from an egg just like Happy and Natsu, while being passed down by their dragon parents for a katana.

So, in this section, I will be going over the many different types of weapons and companions that you can use for your OC, examples for the two OC's, as well as how to give your OC a katana and an exceed without having to rely on the 'norm.'

**Weapons: **Weapons, weapons, weapons! I'm sure most if not all of you have thought, at some point, to give your OC a weapon of choice. I don't know about you guys, but I'm sure a SWORD has came across your mind at least once. Due to the oversaturation of general Weabery, samurai swords became an extremely popular thing over all aspects of anime. This means, the fans that watch anime, will go straight into the trope and give their OC's a sword, a katana, or god forbid, TWO katanas. Anything more than two is basically a copy of Zoro from One Piece or Bee from Naruto.

Anyways, the usage of weapons allows your OC to diversify their fighting style. Naturally, weapons provide greater range and alleviate some of the force that would otherwise go to the OC's hands or feet if they fought unarmed.

Now, considering swords are meant to _kill_, most legal mages would likely turn away from it; this is because they would need the discipline and training to use it properly. If they were to accidentally kill someone, they would likely get into trouble with the guild or the magic council.

Considering most of the canon characters fight unarmed, or with spells mainly, it is unlikely that your OC would be doing something different unless they are using armour-type weapons such as gauntlets, wands, or staffs that enhance their spells.

You guys might be thinking, but Erza uses swords! Why can't my OC use it too? Erza is a special case in my opinion, her magic is completely built off of using weapons and martial prowess, which means if your OC is a dragon slayer, he shouldn't be a random sword master just for the sake of it. Personally, I think that if your OC uses a weapon, it should be one that enhances their main magic or combat style - the more they fit together, the better.

Ex. Someone whose magic allows them to send air blades might naturally be more inclined to use a bladed weapon.

If Natsu were to use a weapon, he would likely use highly heat-resistant gauntlets. This is because most of his attacks are reliant are unarmed combat, having those gauntlets would allow him to hit harder as well as provide him with some sort of protection - if he was fighting someone _else _with a weapon.

Ex. He would be able to block one of Erza's swords by simply raising his arm.

Listen, I get the huge wank-off for swords and katanas, but do try to balance it out. If having a sword has nothing to do with their magic, and doesn't naturally go well with their fighting style, I would advise against it. Again, if you are dead set in having your OC wield a sword, it won't break your story. I would recommend at least explaining why they decide to use a sword, not just have their dragon parent or OC mentor leave them one with no explanation as to why.

Before 'MY STORY, MY RULES!' Come on guys, you're all better than that.

One thing before we move onto more examples, is that weapons don't have to be some stick-like object wielded in your hand. It could be a tome your OC carries around that enhances their spells or it could be some sort of jewelry that provides a boost to their magic. Hell, Laxus' headphones could be a weapon if they have properties that allow for better lightning control.

I mean, even on google definition, a weapon is some meant to inflict damage or to gain an advantage in a contest. Anyways, let's give a few examples for what weapons canon characters could use before moving onto the OC examples.

Let's say Laxus _actually _wears his headphones because they aid him somewhat in his lightning magic, and not because he is an edgelord that thinks spiked headphones are cool. More so than just listening to music, his headphones actually allow him to shoot his lightning more accurately, as well as generate lightning quicker because they act like some sort of conductor.

Remember when Makarov found Team Shadowgear crucified against the tree? He had a staff then. While Mashima hasn't expanded on what staffs do, staffs could have certain magical conducting properties that make spells easier to cast, or even lower the amount of magic needed to do so. I don't think we have ever seen Makarov actually whack people with his staff in battle, but I do believe that it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities for Makarov (or even an OC) to use a staff.

Now, Lucy doesn't consider her spirits as 'weapons;' the spell itself is the act of summoning while the spirits are more like companions (you could argue the keys themselves are the weapons). However, she _has _used a whip as a weapon before - that would be one of her weapons. Not only that, her Star Dress later in the Alvarez arc is also one of her weapons, one that enhanced different abilities based on the gate.

Hopefully with these three examples, those of you reading this will be able to exit the box labeled 'Katanas,' and actually think of different weapons and magic-wear. Come on, staffs, necklaces, pendants, head phones, tomes, literally anything could be a weapon if it granted the user an advantage in a fight.

Anyways, now we have a few examples of _canon _characters, what sort of weapon (if any) would the OC's use? Considering the male OC uses shift magic, he would likely fight in close combat, but he would also be capable of taking ranged pot shots from bouncing back and forth in 3D space. Therefore, if he were to use a weapon, it would be something capable of both ranged and melee. Of course, he could use multiple types of weapons.

For example, the male OC could use daggers for quick-paced close-ranged combat, while using shuriken for hitting enemies in their blind spots. In fact, the way I imagine the character to fight, would be quite similar to a shinobi from Naruto - although without any of the flashy techniques such as elemental jutsu.

He would be able to move fast and undetected, and I would imagine that his fighting style would be blitzing his opponents before they have a chance to get used to his opponents.

While other weapons could work (like a sword - but seriously no), I believe having quick short melee weapons paired with short-to-mid-ranged weapons fits his magic and personality. So for now, we will go with Daggers/Kunai with shuriken or other similar throwing weapons.

For the female OC, considering she uses enchantment magic, the only weapon/tool I can see her using is a staff - just like how Irene has a large wooden staff. She would not be a master of staff-wielding, and would likely use it to quicken her enchantments or to draw certain runes that she otherwise wouldn't be able to draw.

I believe the staff would work as well, as if she was someone who would go outdoors often as a hobby, the staff would also double up as a walking stick for when she needs to hike up mountainous regions.

Hopefully after reading the above, those of you reading will now have a good idea on how certain patterns work, and how certain weapons fit different characters with different magics better. Do try to world build in a certain process, work from the ground up, brick by brick, and work from there.

Sure, you could simply pull off a laundry list of things you are cool and put it into a character; no one is stopping you, including me. What I do recommend, is putting more thought into each decision, so the character is best as they can be, and will fit that much better in your story.

**Getting a Weapon:** Now that we know the various types of weapons your OC _can _have, we must now figure out how the OC actually obtains the weapon.

YEAP YOU GOTTA THINK OF A WAY OTHER THAN RANDOMLY GETTING IT FROM A DRAGON, SHOCKING RIGHT?

Moving on, I should first say there are methods _outside _of the norm. The most common trend of getting a weapon, is having it passed down by someone else. This could be a dragon, for dragon slayer fics, or even just some random old guy that would take the role of your OC's mentor.

So, _other _than being handed a weapon with no pretense, what else can we do to give the OC a weapon?

First off, if you _have _to go with the pass-down route, perhaps actually have your OC make a journey to some place, and have to earn it? Instead of just being randomly given it just for existing like some sort of participation medal, actually have them fight through a bunch of difficult bullshit just to get the weapon. That way, you could get some development from it as _well _as something cool for your OC.

However, if you are _not _planning to go with the pass-down route, then there are other options that can be good starting point.

Intentional: What I mean by 'intentional,' is that your OC spends the time and effort to actually create some sort of tool for them to use, such as forging a weapon - what I believe to be how Erza gets her armour (and not just randomly poop it out of her gigantic fucking ass). Perhaps your OC becomes more and more adept at their magic, and realizes that having some sort of weapon can benefit them in the long run. This could have some fun scenes where your OC basically goes shopping and tries out different weapons, maybe even failing at one because it just wasn't compatible, before eventually finding one that works for them.

Unintentional: For this part, the OC did not go out of their way to create or find a weapon. This could have been something spontaneous, such as the OC buying a tool without any previous thought, and finding out that the tool is _actually _useful. Although buying something perfectly useful on the _first_ time is a plot device, you could easily play it off by having your OC impulse buy regularly, and it was only recently that they found the tool. For the most part, what the OC buys is basically junk.

These two I would say are basically the main ways you can have your OC get a weapon. There are likely many dozens of varieties and situations where your OC could get a weapon, but I would separate it into intentional or unintentional. I would chose between which one you want your OC to have, and build up from there.

For the male OC, I would have it as intentional, where he found out somewhere along the line, that having weapons would make him far more deadly in combat than just teleporting around punching people. Perhaps he broke his hand punching someone with a tougher defense, and realized that having a weapon would have prevented that from happening.

For the female OC, I would have as intentional, but not as intentional as the male OC; I can see her going on with her business, until finding out that staffs may improve performance when it comes to her magic. She might end up trying one from this new knowledge, and end up adapting it into her routines.

Hopefully, through this section, you would hopefully realize that you do NOT need a dragon or a old guy to give your OC a weapon. Seriously, it takes maybe one chapter to write how they got their weapon (maybe less), there's no need to rush everything just so you can write your OC into canon.

**Companions:** Companions is honestly something really common; I use it, many other people use it, and a hell a lot of OC authors use it. Of course, not inherently bad. In fact, companions may be inherently good because it provides another layer of depth to the story, as well as the development of a character - especially if the companion was integral in certain scenes or in parts of the plot.

Also, for the most part, the companions I will be talking about are _non-human._ They are allowed to be sentient, but they won't be human (because then they would basically just be regular friends/family).

Ex. You know how some people have a completely shit day, then go home to their dog and everything is fine again? That's basically what a companion should be. For those of you pet owners, do try to write the companions like that. Someone that enhances your life and can bring you up even in the lowest of times.

Remember, dogs or pets in general are a major part of your life. Then can brighter up your day and really pump away your sorrows. They aren't just some useless side character that adds additional dialogue. Therefore, if companions in real life aren't side characters, why should they be so in your story?

Anyways, now that we established the importance of the companion, let's figure out some canon examples.

The easiest one to talk about is Natsu and Happy, those two have a relationship similar to brothers or even father/son in certain times. Personally, I think compared to Natsu/Happy the relationship between the other Dragon Slayers and exceeds are lackluster - although that could just be because Mashima didn't spend the same amount of time developing it.

Now, the relationship between your OC and their companion doesn't _have _to be as close as Natsu and Happy. Natsu lives with Happy, goes everywhere with happy, and are basically inseparable. Not only that, but they fight together often too. When you write your companion, you first want to decide what role they are going to play, when they are going to play it, and whether or not that role will change in the future.

Do you want your companion to be just like Natsu and Happy? Inseparable, basically siblings, and are battle partners? If so, then you will have to write them like that. Not just the OC saying they are like Natsu and Happy too, but actually writing scenes of the two fighting together or caring for each other at a deeper level.

If you want your companion to be more like a pet, and less like Natsu/Happy, then you can. If the companion is more like a pet, that means they will be more important to your OC's character development than they are to the plot itself. This could be done in many ways, but one example would be your OC going home after royally screwing up, or perhaps losing something they cherished. Instead of crying alone in a depressed corner, they have their companion to cheer them up, and to remind your OC that he still has that particular companion.

Another way to write a companion, is similar to Lucy's spirits (not included Aquarius). For the most part, they would not be present in your OC's life, but they will appear in moments of great importance (doesn't necessarily have to be a fight), and would likely have a relationship different from the above. For this particular example, you could have a companion live in a different area then your OC (a forest for example), and would basically be independent. It could have been some sort of beast living in the forest that your OC gave food to, and developed some sort of kinship. This could end up growing into something more, and perhaps after years of the OC visiting the beast (doesn't have to be a draconic creature), the beast basically recognizes the OC as a friend. Then, the relationship could truly be explored during the Phantom Lord fight or whatever arc, where the beast comes out of its home just to aid your OC.

There are lots of different methods to have a companion; I'm sure there are hundreds of different variations out there. I hope by reading the three examples you will be able to deviate from what I've said and put your own spin, or even come up with something new altogether. It's all about finding something that fits the plot, and to write it in a way that makes the companion integral to either the plot or your OC's character development.

In my opinion, if the companion/pet isn't important to the plot, makes no changes to the OC, and really does nothing except for existing, then there really isn't any point in writing the companion - especially if the companion was written in just to make the OC look cool.

Now, what sort of companions would the example OC's have?

For the male OC, considering he's basically an edgelord ninja (at least in appearance), I don't think he would have any companions or pets. Even if he _did _have a pet, it would likely be something mundane and unimportant like having a pet lizard. Then the pet lizard's only purpose would be to humanize an otherwise pure-edge character. So, for this part, we will go with _no _companion for the male OC.

For the female OC, she would be a bookworm and a nerd. I find it reasonable for her to have a owl (since they symbolize intelligence), that she trained to be able to fetch books. In fact, you could even weave some world building in and make the owl capable of magic and speech, which could allow the female OC and the owl to have a relationship similar to Natsu and Happy. Based on her character, this is something I can see happening, although _not _having a companion wouldn't be the end of the world either.

Now, this part is relatively short because companions aren't really required. You could basically skip this part and have no companion for your OC if that is what you desire. However, if you want the companion to add in some extra depth to the plot and development, then I do hope you will have a decent idea of the different tools and varieties available to you.

**Getting a Companion: **Other than having the companion itself, we have to figure out _where _the OC actually got them. While I've read many stories where the companions are just written in as if they were always there, and then how they came to be would be told through flashbacks, there are many more ways that you can use to do so.

Saviour (intentional): Likely the most popular one I've seen that's not the exceed egg route, having your OC show kindness to a non-human character that was otherwise mistreated seems to be people's go-to. Personally, this particular method is a slipper slope, as I personally believe that an abused animal wouldn't go 100% loyal for your OC within a day - especially if the animal was a wyvern, beast, or other creature that would normally be aggressive/territorial. Instead of just having the OC randomly give the abused animal a pat on the back, then boom companion, perhaps write something deeper.

For example, what if the animal was more neglected than abused? Instead of having the animal get extremely angry and mistrusting through slave labour or being whipped, they were simply ignored and unfed after being captured - by a dark guild for example that ran a illegal trade of rare beasts. Then, the OC would rescue the injured animal (who is too weak to fight back), then nurse them back to health over the course of months. The OC's actions here could allow a bond to develop, the beast would see the OC as a close friend or even family.

Regardless of how you play off this method, I would recommend against having the beast/animal follow your OC within a single confrontation. To me, it just doesn't seem realistic.

Unintended Follower: While a more long-term based method, the unintended follower is like finding a random cat in your home and end up becoming a cat owner. In fact, I would categorize how Natsu found Happy at the UF. This is because Natsu never intended to have Happy, he had Happy's fall on top of him while he was punching pictures of Gray and Erza. Despite not intending to have a follower, or saving an abused animal, that doesn't mean their relationship isn't genuine.

For example (let's say the companion is a wolf), if your OC was out camping, and basically a random wolf ostracized from his pack comes forward in hunger, and your OC offers it food, developing the bond. Now, this particular example to the 'saviour' as it involves showing kindness to an animal otherwise living a harsh life. However, the difference is that it was the wolf that approached the OC, and not the other way around.

Another example of the unintended follower could basically just be the 'cat wanders into your house.' While the OC is out doing a job or whatever the fuck, they accidentally leave their house unlocked, and ends up returning to see their kitchen being raided. This could open the door for a whole different set of shenanigans, and ending with the OC having a new companion.

Pet: For the pet, it is only _slightly _different from Saviour and UF. I would put the female OC's method of obtaining her companion as pet. As she would purposely go out of her way just to find the owl-like creature, whether by taming it in the wild or buying them from a magical pet store.

This particular category will describe OC's that _want _to have some sort of pet (regardless of the pet's role in the story), where the pet was not abused or in need of saving. For this method, I would say the two main ways are either going into a forest or wherever to tame in the wild, or simply visiting a magic shop.

While these are the main categories, I can actually think of some other ones.

Ex. A companion that follows the strongest mage, and your OC defeats the previous owner, gaining the loyalty of the creature - doesn't need to be abused, but the following is just out of principle.

**Exceeds: **Okay, if you are hell-bent on having your OC be a dragon slayer, want them to be just like the canon dragon slayers, as well as being a part of the time travel, then I will _attempt _to aid you in your endeavors.

In canon, the eggs launched out by Queen Shagotte were done around the same time as Happy, meaning that if you want an exceed the same age as them, then you will either have your OC attain them around this time, and make some changes to your headcanon to allow the OC to have the exceed without following the original timeline.

However, your OC does not necessarily need to have an exceed at the beginning, as they could have found the exceed after Extalia fell.

Hatching: Similar to Natsu, if you picked 'hatching,' that means your OC found the exceed partner as an egg. For this part, you will have to decide whether or not it was intentional, or unintentional. Unintentional being similar to Natsu, as the egg found him, and not the other way around.

For intentional, the OC could have went to an exotic animal store to look for a pet, and they end up seeing the exceed egg, thinking it was some sort of powerful creature, and end up buying that one.

Another method, is to have the egg be taken as a prize. For example, let's say some unsavoury individuals has procured the large egg and is marketing it as a wyvern/dragon egg, your OC could have defeated them and taken the egg for themselves.

Regardless of what method you chose, it is important to write out the scene where your OC finds them, especially if the exceed is going to have a pivotal role in the story.

Finding: Unlike Natsu, your OC found the exceed after they have already hatched - similar to Pantherlily and Gajeel. You could combine finding with the methods of obtaining above.

Ex. The exceed could have survived by himself, or even passed around by an exotic pet, and it is your OC that finally helps the exceed escape from its harsher life, allowing for a bond to develop. This one would require little more edge than usual, but the relationship between the OC and the exceed could really flourish if you play this well.

Ex2. You could even go the unintended follower route. If the exceed had a personality similar to Frosch, and basically followed the OC around after finding them interesting, that could mark the beginning of their relationship.

Again, there are hundreds of different combinations you could use. What I would recommend is think of multiple ways your OC would meet the exceed, then choose the one that will fit the narrative the most.

Ex. If your wrote the OC in a way that it would make more sense to find an exceed later in the story, then do so.

**Swords: **Before I start here, I just want to say, KATANAS ARE NOT THE ONLY TYPE OF SWORDS. Seriously, thousands of different bladed weapons out there and everything goes with that one.

_The Weeb is strong with this one._

Okay, what types of swords are out there? OTHER than Katanas. Well, there are: European broad swords, Dao, Scimitars, daggers, claymores, rapiers, and sabers just to name a few. Exactly, you could have your OC fighter like a fencer or European knight instead of some anime Weeb only capable of doing draw-and-sheathe techniques.

Anyways, what would be some methods of obtaining a sword? Let us ignore the pass-down shit for now.

Forging: Like I mentioned before, your OC had the intent of getting a sword to bolster their combat potential. Regardless of how the OC fights, is up to you. Since they intended to get he sword, the OC is going to forges, smelteries, and everything similar to try and get a good weapon. Not only that, they wouldn't randomly be masters of it either. AND ESPECIALLY NOT PEOPLE WHO GO TOE TO TOE WITH ERZA AND SPROUT SOME BULLSHIT LIKE 'I'M NOT THAT GOOD WITH A SWORD,' GET THAT INFORMED FLAW SHIT OUTTA HERE, YOU VISCOUS CUNTS.

Finding: Let's say your OC has heard of some magical sword that is buried and held in some random place. No one has found it yet (or maybe it has and your OC has to retrieve it from that person), so your OC is going out of their way just to get that sword - could be an OC arc.

Anyways, there are many ways of getting a sword, but like before, I would put it between intentional and unintentional. Although it would likely be more intentional than unintentional.

While this particular chapter isn't that important, knowing what to do when it comes to companions and weapon could really flush out the inconsistencies in stories, or the general awfulness that plagues this particular section in OC's stories.

Again, thank you for reading, and I'll see you all in the backstory chapter.

Bye cunts :)

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**Chapter 3 Done! Next Chapter: Backstory**

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	4. CH4 - OC Creation: Backstory

**Chapter 4 - OC Creation: Backstory**

**Arguably the toughest portion of building a character, it's time for backstory! **

**Most OC stories I have seen either have a cliché backstory, no backstory, or so much fucking backstory that it's basically child slavery all the way from infancy to canon. **

**Anyways, let us move on!**

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**Introduction:** What is backstory? For those of you that heard this term, the backstory "is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of primary interest" - Google Definitions.

What this means is that backstory is whatever happened to your character, or just characters in general, before where the story begins. Keep in mind, if your story starts IN the presumed backstory, then it's not really a 'backstory,' but rather a prologue. However, it wouldn't be wrong to call it a backstory either if you put the beginning of canon as where the 'main' story begins.

Ex. If your story starts in canon where Lucy joins Fairy Tail, then the backstory would be whatever happened prior to X784.

Ex2. If your story starts with your OC as a child all the way to canon, then you could say that the part of the story before canon is a prologue story, although it wouldn't be wrong to categorize it otherwise.

Now, what is the importance of having a backstory?

Your OC's backstory IS what determines what magic they use, why they act a certain way, why they dress like they do, and even why they _look _as they do. All the events that happened in your OC's life shape them in a certain way. Just like how having a tougher life could cause a colder and more pessimistic outlook on life.

It is possible to have too much backstory, as extra details just become redundant and pointless. Remember, make just enough to make your character interesting as well to explain what made they who they are, and cut out details that may make them overbearing!

BALANCE!

**Building Backstories: **Before you build a backstory, you must first ask yourself: what sort of character do I want my OC to be? This includes: their main goals, what they hate, what they love, are they honourable, are they an asshole, etc. Don't worry about the fine details, we can get into the day-to-day habits and other small things in the next chapter.

Once you have a direction of where you want the OC's character to go, then we can start building a backstory to reflect that. Now, why do we need to build a backstory this way? This is because your backstory is the events that create the core traits of your character. These events explain why your OC acts a certain way, talks a certain way, why they hate certain things, etc.

Cause and effect. That's what you need to think about when building a backstory. There are probably millions of different things that could happen that would shape your OC than something slightly different.

For the first example, let's say you want your OC to be knight-like character- meaning, they would be chivalrous and even speak like a knight.

Ex. '_En Garde, foul wench!' _

That, or basically something along those lines. Now, what could have caused the OC to act this way? Instead of having the OC just randomly decide to do so (horrible writing does this), let's come up with a simple explanation. Remember, you DON'T need to write a 1,000,000 word epic leading up to this one detail, that's just completely going overboard. Find the balance within reason.

For this particular character, let's say when the OC was young, he was saved, or went through something that allowed a knight-like person - perhaps a Rune Knight - to leave an impression. That particular person also had some knight lingo, and basically inspired a level of hero-worship in the OC, making them adapt certain mannerisms that would align with that particular person.

Due to this impression, the OC would talk like a knight, act like a knight, likely act chivalrous as well as adopt some sort of magic that would resemble a knight too. The most likely magic for this would be some form of sword magic, similar to Erza. He could either be an European knight wielding a broadsword, or even like a duelist wielding a rapier.

For the second example, let's say you want your OC to be a cold asshole - since for some reason this is a fan favourite.

There are many types of backstories that could lead to the OC becoming an asshole; however, these ones are usually tragic in some way or form. Remember, when someone is a cold asshole, it means it is hard for them to trust people. They likely have had people abuse their kindness (if they were kind in the past), betray them in some way or form, or was basically a passive/non-confrontational person and ended up really salty from constantly holding their silence.

Ok, for this example, let's dial back on the edge scale and go for something a little bit more reasonable. Instead of having the OC visit the twelve different types of Afghanistan and Syria, let's say they were born in Magnolia and led a relatively tame life. Let's not do that 'bullied as a kid' shit because that's just cliché to the point where I don't even want to bother recommending methods to do it reasonably.

Instead, let's go with something outside of the OC's control.

Once upon a time, the OC had a best friend that they did everything with. One day, when they were older, the OC's friend had to move out of town because their parents got a job or something. While there really isn't anyone to blame, the OC basically is now afraid of another relationship because of the impression left on them as a child. The OC now as slight abandonment issues and basically all they can think about when making new friends is whether or not they will leave.

Now, some of you might be thinking: oh come on, it's just moving, it can't be _that _bad. Well the thing is, things that can't be that bad as an adult, is _far _worse as a child. Not only that, these small things can actually build core traits that spiral out of control as an adult despite not knowing where that particular trait comes from. A kid is VERY impressionable. Something that an adult can easily solve can actually be traumatizing for kid. This trauma can lead to core values and traits such as cold/asshole behaviour.

Anyways, the OC grew up into a teen; the more diverse set of emotions, and the general lack of knowledge in how to deal with them, kept them away from other people. THEN, this self-proclaimed torment of loneliness basically goes internal, where the problem is more on the OC's mentality instead of people genuinely not wanting to be friends with them. Therefore, the backstory isn't because of actual pain, but rather the lack of knowledge in knowing how to deal with the past, emotions, and lacking inner-child work.

For those of you that don't know, inner-child work is basically recalling the events as a child that would lead to certain beliefs or 'conclusions.' Something that could be 'no one is to be trusted,' might have stemmed from having your candy stolen as a kid.

Knowing this, there are MILLIONS possibly BILLIONS of different ways to write a backstory. I could sit here and write dozens of examples and hit over 10,000 words (possibly even more) just in this chapter; all those examples won't do anything if you don't understand the thought and world building processes that led up to it.

For those of you that are new to backstories, try to use this step-by-step process to help yourself along.

1) Find the general aim of your character: goals, motivation, what they plan to do, etc.

2) Build the details that you want your character to have: appearance, magic, etc.

3) Find out what core traits and values your character has: honourable, asshole, cynical, skeptical, etc.

4) Figure out the events that you want to happen to make your character have those traits and values

5) Decide what those core traits and values mean for interactions between other characters, as well as the relationships they will have

Once you have these five steps, you basically have your character built and ready to insert into canon. Of course, the planning isn't done yet! You still have to figure out increasing skill of magic, character development, changes in these traits based on the events in future story arcs, etc.

There is no one out there to tell you what is good and what is bad. Generally speaking, if you spend the time and effort in doing whatever you can for those five steps, it will likely be good. If you skip everything and just start writing into canon as soon as some random idea pops out, then it will likely be bad.

When building your backstory, ACTUALLY FUCKING BUILD. You should have full paragraph answers to all five steps if I were to ask them as questions. They should also be OFF THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD. If you can remember the information it basically means you have such a good understanding of your OC you can write scenes as easy as retard authors write fatalist stories.

**Some Backstories to Avoid:** Alright, now you have an idea of how to build a backstory, here are some backstories I honestly think you _should _avoid. These are often cliché, done horribly, and is overly excessive. However, if you are still resolute in using one of them, or _hell… _ALL of them, then perhaps I could give some pointers to keep your story from becoming a soap opera based in WH40K.

VA:DP:FBD:JFT: What the actual fuck is this? This acronym stands for: Village attacked: Dead Parents, Found by Dragon, Joins Fairy Tail. Sound familiar? It should; this is what the majority of OC dragon slayers have as a backstory. Although to me, it's basically the _lack _of having a backstory because stories like this usually go from childbirth to Fairy Tail within half a chapter, then tell literally everything else in flashbacks.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to feel about this. On one hand, I have an acute loathing for this particular backstory, but on the other hand - it's because I have never really seen this particular backstory done _well. _

Why do people use this backstory? I would assume it's because it's the most common type of backstory to make someone into a generic Nakama protector. It's simply, its easy, and it takes practically zero effort while skipping several steps of the character creation process.

Advice - Dragon Slayer Backstory Example: So, what are some things you can do to use this backstory for your OC, without having the OC become a copy of Natsu or basically be a one-dimensional generic Shonen character? First of all, FUCKIN D. For those of you that don't know what that is, it basically means to sit down and come up with the details of the backstory _before _writing it down.

I'm looking at you… don't write the backstory as you go along. Way too many people make that mistake and end up being some generic bread shit that just makes up the backstory with flashbacks as they go along.

What are some ways this could work? Let's say we want the OC to be a 1st generation dragon slayer, which means they will have to be found by a dragon at some point in time. They do _not _have to get taken in as some six-year-old child and join Fairy Tail when they are ten. The OC can easily be taken in when they are older (such as fifteen or even an adult), and join Fairy Tail when they are in their teens. Or hell… they could even join the magic council or a dark guild. That could be an interesting twist on this.

Anyways, regardless of what you choose, how do we get the boy to be found by the dragon? Remember, you _don't _need to only focus on having your village attacked. The parents and the OC could have been travelling and then they got caught in a horrendous storm and died in a landslide, or something similar. _Then_, the OC survives and is found by a dragon, in which he is taken in and mentored in Dragon Slayer magic.

Before we continue from this point however, we must first ask ourselves, where does this dragon fit to the canon plot? If you are reading this story, I am assuming you want to tell the story _OF _your OC, and not simply tell canon with your OC making side comments. _**If you are, please kindly leave. **_

If we want to have the OC Dragon be a part of the 400-year-plan eclipse shit, then the OC will likely be restricted to the same age and strength as Natsu/Gajeel - if the canon establishes something, there shouldn't be a reason to follow it in one place and change a subsequent detail just for the sake of changing it.

For this example, the OC's Dragon will be completely UNRELATED to the other dragons. Meaning, the dragon likely remained low-key in where the OC's parents crashed/died, so they would be hidden from Acnologia. It really doesn't matter what element the dragon is, but I would suggest not using the four main elements (plus ice) and PLEASE don't make the dragon's name an obvious pun on the element.

As in, don't name an Ice Dragon Glacia, a wind dragon Gale, an earth dragon Rockus, or whatever retarded bullshit.

Let's say we went with the older OC route, which means the OC will be training with his dragon until… let's say mid teens. The dragon would either complete his training then, or maybe he gets his ass found out by Acnologia and gets washed and killed - this could build motivation for the OC to train to one day contest the black dragon.

For whatever reason, the OC's dragon is no longer present, meaning the OC will have to find his way in life. I personally prefer a more linear story telling, as in, the backstory is a _part _of the story itself in the journey. However, if you plan on starting with canon and writing with flashbacks, don't just randomly drop that shit with no context, at least figure out an arc where the OC would feel _compelled _to tell based on their personality. As in, NO PAST VOMITING.

Anyways, if you plan on writing the OC's past as part of the story, then I would suggest anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 words for their journey from the beginning to going into the world after their dragon is gone. If you plan on writing on the higher side, make sure to establish some character development. If you plan on writing the low side, try to focus more on foundation and leave the character development for arcs after the prologue chapters.

Now, I've mentioned that the OC at this point, can join another guild, go off and be an independent mage in some country somewhere, or even the magic council and eventually become the leader of that. However, most of you likely want to write your OC in Fairy Tail, so I will continue my advice assuming that you have made that choice.

When should the OC join Fairy Tail? Right now, the OC would be around 14-16. Chances are, the OC will NOT get randomly found by Makarov who just so happens to be taking a stroll in god-fucking-knows-where just to invite your OC into Fairy Tail. OR BETTER FUCKING YET, your OC nearly fucking gets castrated by dark mages, accidentally uses dragon force, AND he gets a pity invitation from the guild master of Fairy Tail.

All jokes aside, this is where it gets tricky. I get a lot of you probably want to insert him into the story right after the dragon leaves. Seriously guys, you don't even need to write a full OC arc, just do one or two chapters explaining some of the stuff he went through to eventually lead him to Fairy Tail. It doesn't have to be a set structure either, you can just put some mundane scenes or brief struggle that open up the OC's character to the audience. Give a little insight on what the OC is like, their eating habits, small things they do when they walk, how they fiddle around when they are waiting, etc.

This sounds pretty simple right? While putting an OC arc or two could put some character development before just randomly joining Fairy Tail, it is not ENTIRELY necessary but I would still recommend doing at least a mini-arc showing their travels. You COULD go into further detail later on in flashbacks, but I wouldn't do that unless it was important to a certain scene.

Ex. The OC is feeling depressed and flashbacks to their childhood days - opens up to the OC's relationship with their parents before they died.

Anyways at this point, the OC is basically at Fairy Tail, and we're basically done the 'backstory' or 'prologue' portion of the story.

Advice Addendum: Now, there is actually another method of writing backstory _without _doing prologue arcs. For those of you that want to get right into the canon story, you could simply have your character show up as if they had been in the guild for awhile. When Lucy joins, your OC doesn't have to join WITH Lucy, they could have joined years ago. This means they could have their own relationships with the other guild members, and they won't just be some tagalong to Team Natsu.

Then, their backstory can actually be _slowly _weaved in by expressing the skills or knowledge they have learned from past experiences. You don't have to flashback to everything they have done in mass detail.

Ex. Your OC goes on a mission with Lucy alone and ends up defeating a beast or something. Then Lucy asks how they were able to do that and the OC mentions about a time they were in another country or something and had to fight the same monsters off.

Now, flashbacks CAN be used once the backstory has been 'foreshadowed.' The readers have already been prepared about certain details of the OC's backstory, and the backstory isn't just written as it comes. If you _are _planning on flashbacking an important event that molded the OC the most, then do it. Using flashbacks doesn't automatically make your story trash. BUT, having five of them with different backstories within five chapters IS excessive. Don't go that far.

Advice Addendum #2 - Shout out to Corn Muffins: Another thing about backstories, is that whatever in the past, _doesn't_ have to come back. While it's true, sometimes the actions of an OC could result in making enemies that would want to come back and hurt them in some way or form. However, this _doesn't _have to always be the case.

Events in backstories don't have to come back as an OC arc with shitload of other OC's that had major beef with them. The backstories could have came back as memories, nightmares, or even problems that are completely internal. The demons that the OC would need to put to rest is not something tangible, and is something they will have to work through.

Ex. The OC is forced to kill someone, and instead of that certain someone's brother's sister's cousins or whatever the fuck coming to assassinate them, the OC has to live with the guilt constantly haunting them. Then, one of the OC arcs is the OC finding peace, with every shadow and monster being completely internal by their inner turmoil.

The Pity Farm: What is the Pity Farm? Exactly as it says, a pity farm backstory is designed to not _just _make the readers over-sympathize with the character, but to get mental-handjobs from every fucking character in the canon cast.

For some dumb reason, these backstories always involve slavery and torture in some way or form that makes Erza's stay at the 5 Star Hotel ran by Zeref Cultists look like a vegan picnic with the care bears.

Ex. Okay, so your OC's only brother basically sold him as a child slave to be abused in a war and is tortured daily by some fat fuck for his amusement. His only friend is a quadriplegic puppy with AIDS and he cries so much his tear ducts exploded. One day, his puppy dies from starvation and he is forced to watch its dead body be eaten by maggots before eventually having his prison bombed in war and he somehow escapes maimed, mutilated, and scarred for life.

_JESUS FUCKING CHRIST MATE. _If your OC's backstory make a Jewish Teenager with Ebola living in Nazi Germany cry in sadness then you are doing some _horribly _wrong.

I REALLY don't see how anyone can think this is a compelling backstory. I don't know about you guys, but when I see an OC with that kind of backstory, I think to myself… _what the actual fuck is the author thinking, should I call the police?_ There is a limit on how much tragedy you dump into an OC's backstory before all the details become overly excessive and has no effect. It may even have a _reverse _effect and turn off your readers at the sheer absurdity that is the gore dump of a story.

Advice on Tragic Backstories: For a lot of you, a tragic backstory is something that you want for your OC to 'push' them into growing. Let's face it, a kid growing up spoiled and loved probably wouldn't have the insane drive of Shonen characters. Dead parents is a MUST. Hell, just _one _dead parent could work, no need for brutally leaving the OC's parents' entrails as a wreathe on Christmas.

If your OC was not affiliated with Fairy Tail at birth (some stories have their parents be mages for Fairy Tail like Gildarts and Cana), then chances are, they would need _some _form of motivation to get them to join. Some sort of tragedy that has to strike the OC to jumpstart their path of magic, and the plot.

Instead of going with something cliché like a random team of bandits or Zeref Cultists, you could easily use a stampede of monsters that could have basically flattened a village due to the Magic Council's construction of expansion. This could then lead to an unnaturally hatred towards the Magic Council from your OC, making them extra destructive when they join Fairy Tail just to piss them off.

Remember, tragic backstories WILL develop core traits for your OC. A very common one - one I DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, recommend, is the OC being an unlikeable cold asshole that somehow gets a pass for everything they do because of their experience in puppy-kickers land. _And no, it's not China. _

Honestly, that particular brand of backstories is just straight up horse piss poured into a pile of diapers. Most if not ALL of the OC characters that are a victim of this basically never get called out for their shitty attitude. They stand up to authority and get praised for being bold and never ruin any of their relationships by being an asshole. Despite being completely sarcastic and unlikeable, they basically have every member of Fairy Tail trying to endlessly be friends with them like their all autistic. I get Fairy Tail is a family-friendly guild. But seriously guys? _Come on._

Anyways, considering what I've just said about the backstory building the foundation of your character, here are some examples of tragic backstories and what they could do to your OC.

Ex 1. Here's a simply/common one. The OC's parents is killed by a beast. The beast completely eliminates the OC's old home, forcing them on the road. Somewhere somehow, they found Fairy Tail and joins. Due to basically losing absolutely everything, the OC is relatively cold to people, grieving. When they are done grieving, they are closed off, afraid to be in relationships because of the pain. Eventually when they open up, they remember what it's like to have family, and it's basically NAKAMA PROTECTING TIME. I WILL PROTECT MY PRECIOUS PEOPLE. I WON'T FORGIVE IF YOU HURT MY NAY-KAY-MAY. RAMEN IS THE FOOD OF THE GODS. YIAAAAA.

Moving on.

Ex 2. Let's go a bit darker, but not TOO dark. The OC was born in a different country. The country is tense and basically erupts into war. The OC's father is conscripted into war, dying. The OC's side is losing the war, so they are forced to escape the country before the enemy side comes for them. The last ship to leave is too full, but through the kindness of one of the officers, he chooses to stay behind to allow the OC (a child) to have a future, while him and the mother stays behind. Before you go, WAIT what about the woman and children shit, wouldn't it make more sense that BOTH of them made it instead of having them both die? Okay, mother goes on the boat, dies of a sickness. Doesn't fucking matter. Anyways, continuing.

Whether or not mother or man lives or die doesn't matter, but the OC does not know for sure. The OC escapes as they look back and sees the home they lived in for their childhood burnt down and conquered. The ship lands in Fiore, where the kid is quickly taken to the refugee camp where he meets an old man too old to fight in a war, but lost his own children in the war. The old man is a mage, and teaches the boy. The mentor eventually dies from old age/sickness, and the OC, being slightly older and capable of magic, stumbles onto Fairy Tail, joining it.

Of course, the OC would miss their parents, but likely already over the grieving period from his time with the old mentor. The OC would likely learn to accept his death because he was simply too old, and passed away peacefully (not everyone close to the OC has to meet a horrible eviscerating death). The OC isn't as cold as the one in example one, and is able to fit in after a while.

Due to lack of closure, the OC would be in constant turmoil, wondering what happened to his country when they left, as well as the fate of their mother and the man who gave up his place for the OC. The war would also affect the OC in a way; they might perhaps end up being a pacifist, only fighting in self-defence. The OC might also have similar goals to Naruto, in the sense that they would want to establish peace in their home land. If nothing else, the OC would be angry that they were too weak back then, as they were unable to do anything. This would be the motivation for them to get stronger. Their main goal might be - _I refuse to be helpless, never again._ Of course, protecting Nakama is a given.

Ex 3. Instead of people randomly dying, the OC could have been born an orphan. While the OC didn't have any parents, they could have had a parent-figure in the form of the orphanage. Since this is a tragic backstory, the parent-figure would have to be a huge asshole that abuses children to an extent. This is NOT tying them up and cutting off their fingers for fun, but more like backhanding like when they disobey. Eventually, the orphanage runs out of money and the OC grows too old (let's say 13-14), and is kicked out on the streets. Then, the OC is forced to do rather unsavoury things for money: stealing, scamming, considerably illegal jobs, etc. The OC eventually learns magic to better themselves in this route, perhaps their goal is to finally get off the streets by becoming a mage strong enough to earn their keep. This path eventually has the OC meet a Fairy Tail member, opening the door to guild life.

These are just some examples of tragic backstories of varying degrees. You don't need to have every fucking WH40K story crammed into one character to have the readers sympathize with them. All of the readers likely live relatively docile lives, so they would probably sympathize with a guy who simply has debt. I don't know about you guys, but getting kicked out by an orphanage is something I would _definitely _sympathize with. Hell, even the second example is dark enough to make me go _bloody Christ._

Rape - Shout out to Corn Muffins [WARNING: EXTREMELY RANTY]: Okay. _RAPE. _NEED I FUCKING SAY MORE?! I just want to say people who write rape are probably ugly virgins so they probably won't have to worry about rape. They are likely humongous pussies whose only strength is their muscular fingers worked off of complaining over the internet, LIKE ME.

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *Puts on sunglasses

Okay anyways, I get it. For those of you that seem to get a massive erection for child slavery and a variety of unsavoury shit, rape is your go to dessert after the brutal killing of ten million puppies in a giant blender.

Listen, if you want a tragic backstory, there are MANY ways to do it. Fucking hell, I listed some decent ones that you can use or change up to your liking. You do NOT need a graphic George R.R. Martin level description of every fucking thing that is happening to the OC's mother as they are forced to watch. OR BETTER YET, the OC's a girl and she gets molested by enemy soldiers at the ripe young age of eight.

I know, I know; authors can write anything they want right? But seriously, fuck's wrong with you?

I can understand some people want rape to make their OC be scared of intimacy and a canon character (the pairing) could 'help' them realize there's no need to fear.

Sigh… Of course it's a pairing trope. Nevermind, just write as much rape as you want. No matter what I can not bring myself to give advice for this part, moving on.

**Example Backstories of our OC's: **How to build backstories, what to avoid, and how to build a backstory that leads to certain core values and traits. I think that's good enough for now.

From what I have said above, what shall the backstories of the characters be?

For the male OC, he is edgy, acts cool, is a relatively neutral but _can _be an asshole. He wears all black, is rather introverted and fights like a ninja. There are many backstories that would fit, but let me try to make one up right now.

The OC will need a reason to fight like he does, meaning he likely had to grow up in a more hostile environment that required stealth and speed, where fights would have to be ended quickly in case they are discovered or caught.

Due to this detail, I would put the OC in the country of Seven, in a relatively lawless place ran by gangs. This meant, everyone would have to survive by themselves. The OC doesn't belong to any powerful gang, and instead hangs with a ragtag band of people around his age, with maybe one or two older people to act as the mentors.

Through this, the OC had some decent friendships with the other people in his gang, but they aren't brother level, but more so 'you scratch my back and I scratch yours.' Over time, the OC grew into his teens and learned shift magic from one of the mentors, or by himself through a book but with some guidance. As the OC continues living here, he got better and better at what he did, eventually becoming basically uncapturable by the other gangs.

However, that is not the case for the others. Eventually, one by one, all his companions are captured by gangs, and strong-armed into joining. The OC is mad about this, saying that they should have been stronger and kept fighting for their own freedom. Despite the anger, the OC also understand to a point because the other gang are known for their particularly brutal treatment for those that refuse them.

While not having super close relationships, the OC still see the older mentors as someone they can trust. However, one day, their hiding place is eventually found, and the mentor is killed by the gang, leaving the OC's original group completely empty. Of course, he would be angry, but he won't blindly rush in for revenge because it's more his character to accept things and leave to find another home himself.

Eventually, the OC leaves the country, using his stealth skills to sneak past enemy territory (this could be a mini-arc here - can also leave the escape to a flashback), then eventually finds his way into Fairy Tail.

Due to his experiences, he would be cold and guarded as he was forced to be tough. He would likely sympathize with Laxus because they would have similar mentalities and outlooks due to the OC's upbringing. He wouldn't instantly be friends with the others, instead of keeping them at arms length as 'mission partners.' It would take time before the OC starts trusting people and seeing them as family. This might not even happen between the time of their joining and canon. You could easily make this happen in another arc where they finally develop their characters.

One last thing: while the male OC COULD go back to Seven, he _doesn't_ owe them anything. Meaning, you DON'T to need have a backstory-past arc just for the OC. The past can STAY in the past.

For the female OC, she is slightly bubbly, smart, geeky, NOT clumsy, shy, slightly introverted, and is usually focused on her work.

So, what type of backstory would give her these traits? Remember, because she isn't edgy, she will NOT have a tragic backstory, her parents are probably still alive, and she wouldn't have some random set of slavery shit coming back to bite her in the ass.

Let's say she was also born in Magnolia, and her parents are also mages in Fairy Tail. They aren't Gildarts level mind you, but let's say one of them is an S-Class mage that focuses on enchanting. The parent then teaches the OC her magic and she ends up joining Fairy Tail to follow in their footsteps.

When the OC was growing up, she had always found books far more interesting than playing with other kids, this makes it so she would be rather introverted. However, her first and likely only 'true' friend would be Levy, because they share extremely similar interests would likely geek out with each other regarding various different magical and scientific books.

She would still be kind or cordial to the others, but wouldn't exactly 'hang' with them - at least until a few more years of development. Perhaps in canon, she is a lot better than she was before, but still isn't as outgoing compared to all the others.

Now, where does the bubbly part come from? Let's say she gets easily distracted by books and her mind wanders off to various trivia about nature and things relating to her experiments. This could cause people to think she is 'absent-minded,' giving her a slightly bubbly appearance.

**Conclusion: **Backstories is likely the HARDEST part of building your character. Whatever happens to your character basically determines whatever they are going to be like when the story starts. It is important you refine it as much as you can, even _after _asking yourselves those questions. There is always time to improve before you start writing the story.

Make sure the backstory lines up with exactly what you want, and use it as a tool to create future arcs as well as development for the OC's.

See you next time, cunt bags!

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**Chapter 4 Done! Next Chapter: Personality**

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	5. CH5 - OC Creation: Personality

**Chapter 5 - OC Creation: Personality **

**Choose between a **_**goddamned **_**potato, Natsu, a useless wimp, or asshole that gets no shit from his own shit.**

**This chapter will include the Character Data Sheet that I have mentioned earlier on, hopefully that will help you guys create your character personalities. **

**Let us begin!**

* * *

**Introduction:** For personality, this is probably THE biggest thing that can make or break your story (other than the plot itself of course). You could have the best grammar, well thought-out magic, a great backstory, great premise, lots of world-building, then throw all that hard work out of the window by writing the most trash-tastic garbage fuckhead known to mankind.

Remember, characters have to be reasonable AND relatable. Sure, if you try to do one or the other, you're basically baking a cake without fucking flour (or a goddamned pan in the cases of dialogue-adders). Now, I don't know what that will look like but it's probably shit among _shit._

Anyways, if you make a character reasonable but NOT relatable, you get the blandest piece of shit ever. Boring character, no depth, no drama, no nothing. Basically, a walking potato. You can't get called out for being a Mary Sue because that would assume your character actually has fucking character.

If you make a character relatable but NOT reasonable, you're basically getting a Mary Sue with a shitload of informed flaws, forced scenes, and everything in between that would make your readers go 'the fuck is that shit?'

There is a 'grey' zone that exists for both being reasonable and relatable. Instead of trying to find the exact mid point, you can easily maneuver based on the OC's strength and weaknesses, so everything doesn't seem one directional. THEN, you can shift the grey zone when the character develops.

Also, the personality of your OC will have its roots in their backstory. Meaning, if you built up certain traits and experiences, doing a random one-eighty would make absolute zero sense.

Note: When it comes to Mary Sues, Bland Sues, and Victim Sues, these are like a rite of passage for new authors. You gotta write OC's for ALL three before understanding what makes a compelling character. I think the reason for this, is because the Mary Sue and Victim Sue help an author understand the extremes that should be avoided - A.K.A all-loving hero god of everything or a useless fucking cuck that literally cannot do anything. The bland sue helps the author understand that a BALANCED character is about having crests and troughs (like a wave), flaws and strengths, instead of a straight line. Both the crest and troughs average to the same, but it is FAR more dynamic.

Balance is not a straight line, but a bunch of flaws and strengths averaged to a straight line. REMEMBER THAT.

**Order of Creation**: Now, I don't think I have touched upon this subject in the previous chapter, but the 'order of creation' is the steps you take to build the different aspects of your character.

Ex. Personality - Backstory - Magic - Appearance, etc.

You can easily switch between the aspects based on how important they are to YOU. I myself don't have a set order to create a character for every story. The most important part is that you ACTUALLY build each aspect. The order itself won't break your story but SKIPPING steps will.

For example, if you were writing a story where the basis of the story is the OC being a dragon slayer, then you might do something like this: Magic - Backstory - Personality - Appearance. Since the main point of the story IS his dragon slayer magic, then the magic part would have to be flushed out first. All the other aspects would then be built on TOP of what you have for magic, acting supplementary to the foundations.

For another example, if you were writing a self-insert story, you might do this instead: Personality - Magic - Appearance - Backstory. Since more self-inserts don't really care about how the OC's backstory before they got sent to another world (because every fucking one is getting hit by a car anyway), backstory is likely in this case, the least important. For the most part, I believe that self-insert stories focus more on the interactions between the other characters and changes to canon, so I would say that the OC's personality would be the MOST important out of all aspects by far. The magic (if the OC has any), can be just about anything and it wouldn't really matter, unless of course, the SIOC managed to find a magic that is important to the plot.

For those of you wondering what order _I _did my own OC story in (at least when it comes to the four aspects being used as examples), it would be: Personality - Magic - Backstory - Appearance. Now, the reason why backstory is the _third _as opposed to the first, is because the 'backstory' of my character IS the story, meaning that such a thing would be more in the category of story arcs/plotting than backstory.

Anyways, once you know which aspect the most important part for your story is, build that one first, then all the other ones can build on top of each other to support what you already have.

AND REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR NOTES CONSISTENT TO EACH OTHER. DON'T ADD RANDOM SHIT BECAUSE YOU THINK IT'S COOL AND END UP COMPLETELY FUCKING EVERYTHING UP, SERIOUSLY.

Moving on!

**Building a Personality - Foundations: **Okay, so how to we build a personality? We can actually do this like a tree diagram, starting from the core traits that develop from the backstory, and then you can branch out to the smaller details such as: what the character does for leisure, what do they like to eat, _how _they eat, how they interact to people, how they interact to getting ripped off by a business man. ALL of these things.

A character with certain traits will react to things differently than a character with another set of traits. The more you build the personality of your OC, the more reasonable and more 'alive' your character becomes. This is because your character has a set of flaws and strengths; they are reacting based on these traits and their reactions will change based on the development that occurs in the story.

So, knowing this, how do we start building a personality? While I'm going to do a part for the example OC's, I'm going to go into this particular section where personality is the FIRST thing that you are building for your character. Meaning, backstory, magic, etc. will come _after_. I will also be creating another OC just for this particular example.

Note: For the actual example OC's: appearance, magic, backstory, and some other details are already taken care of, so the process of building personality will be supplementary, NOT as the foundation.

The first question we need to ask ourselves, is _what _sort of character we want our OC to be like. Often times, OC authors don't really ask this question, so they end up just writing whatever they think is 'cool.' I do NOT recommend doing this, ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY NOT, because this leads to consistent inconsistency, and _that's _something you want _nothing _of!

As a good starting point, we can actually look at some archetypes of characters that have been used before. Then, once we find out what we want our character to be, we can then expand on the little details that make them _more _than just their foundations.

Anyways, here are some examples.

Anti-Hero: Anti-heroes are often dishonourable and are not above fighting dirty to achieve their goal. Anti-heroes _don't _have to be straight up assholes or cynical grim fucks. These characters are more likely to do heroic things for self-interest, materialistic gains, and generally for things that people wouldn't consider as 'heroic' motives. While these characters don't necessarily _have _to be villains, they might also be people who simply go along their goals in methods considered to be asshole-ish.

Some examples of anti-heroes would be: Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, Gregory House from House, Katsuki Bakugo from BNHA, and Archer from Fate/Stay Night.

All Loving Hero: The All Loving Hero, or ALH, loves _everyone _to the point of flanderization. They give everyone the benefit of the doubt, constantly give villains a second, third, fifty-seventh chance, and always repay cruelty with kindness, and anger with calm. These characters will also put themselves in harms way to protect their loved ones and will also choose to suffer for their sins.

Some examples of the All Loving hero would be: Kurosaki Ichigo and Orihime Inoue from Bleach, Naruto from Naruto, and Luffy from One Piece.

Wow that shit is pretty fucking common in Shonen anime, eh?

Although not to the scale of being the second coming of the Pope, the characters above all have traits of the ALH in the way where they would protect and forgive their enemies, often times without a second thought.

Dialogue Adder: One of my 'original' archetypes, the dialogue adder is basically someone who solely exists to add dialogue to canon. They do _not, _under _any _circumstance, change canon. This is the OC Dragon Slayer that tags along with Team Natsu, has no character of their own, and whose presence is simply there to make side comments from time to time.

The reason I believe this particular archetype exists, is because OC authors want to write down their thoughts and feelings of the canon show, while also having a bit of self-fulfillment. In fact, this is how I believe bash fics occur. When something in canon isn't up to the author's standards, they will often write the fanfiction using a dialogue-adder character to 'scold' the main characters, as well as say things that the author believed should have been said in canon. Instead of reviewing this on YouTube, Reddit, or another site, they write a story so they can insert their author avatar to 'right' the wrongs.

While some people do this by fixing the plot holes and inconsistencies in a quest to actually _improve _upon the story, most of the OC authors do this so they can give out their thoughts and feelings of each chapter in story form. The reason why they will _NEVER_ stray from canon, is because if they _do _make changes, they will no longer be able to give their thoughts and feelings on the manga.

If the plot does not happen _exactly _as canon, then the OC author will be stuck, unable to have their character make the comments they made while reading the manga themselves.

Anyways, there are hundreds of archetypes out there, but I decided to go with these three because they are probably the most common ones in manga/anime as well as fanfiction - with the dialogue-adder being the most popular for fanfiction.

Now, you can easily go on google and search for a list of archetypes, read it through, and pick something you would like your character to resemble. Remember, you _don't _need your character to completely fit _one _archetype. They could have traits from multiple archetypes to create a character. The main thing to do when making it, is to make sure that the traits your character have do not contradict each other.

Now that you know how to start, let's start with an example. Let's say we want an anti-hero character; he is not affiliated with Fairy Tail and acts as an independent mage that the Magic Council 'tolerates.' Meaning, the OC will not get actively arrested if they show their face, although they might be generally disliked or would be treated with caution due to some of their past actions.

So, from the definition of an anti-hero, what sort of AH would they be? Would the OC be mischievous and charming like Jack Sparrow? Or perhaps they would be cold and cynical like Archer? Let's assume this OC has no backstory yet. For all intents and purposes, let's make the OC be cold and cynical like Archer, but is capable of putting on a more formal and charming side when they are not actively interacting with people they dislike or with potential enemies.

Knowing this, some of the words to describe the OC would be neutral, cynical, chaotic good, trickster, and many more.

Now that we have a foundation of what the character would be like, let's move on to some of the details. To do so, we are going to use something I like to call: The Character Data Sheet.

**Character Data Sheet: **The character data sheet is a tool I use for my own characters, both OC's and non-OC's, to help me keep the characters in character. Sometimes, when you do too much character building, story building, or world building, the notes could become jumbled up and become difficult to actually write into the story. This is because everything becomes hard to keep track of.

To prevent this from becoming an issue, the character data sheet will break down the OC's attributes such as: flaws, strength, quirks, what they do in their off-time, and many more.

Note: The actual character data sheet will be A LOT shorter since for the example below I will be explaining each and every section in the CDS.

OC Name: The first and simplest of the OC's traits is the name. While the name wouldn't really be _that _important in terms of the plot, you want to find something that _fits _the character you have built. However, this does NOT mean you can name your fucking character Sapphire Krystal Ruby Emerald because that is more horrendous than sewage toast blended together with FUCKING DURIANS with free jazz playing in the background.

Some of you name OC's the most Mary Sue shit known to man. Some of you want to avoid that by going to the opposite extreme - LITERALLY naming your OC Ryan Smith or some generic name.

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, IF SOMETHING DOESN'T WORK, DON'T JUST JUMP TO THE OPPOSITE EXTREME. EASE OFF ON THE SCALE BIT BY BIT UNTIL YOU FIND BALANCE, IT'S NOT THAT FUCKING HARD.

Okay rant over. Anyways, if you want a name that fits, let's say an intelligent shadow mage. You could name him something like Miriam Skantus. I just randomly made up this name. Honestly, it sounds like some fantasy anime shit, it's not generic, and it's not a name that is a perfect pun to their magic. Easy, right?

Really, you can save the name of the OC for last, but for all intents and purposes, we will just call the OC - Bob.

Name: Bob.

Family Relations: What are some important family relations of Bob? Does he have any notable parents, siblings, uncles, or aunts? Is Bob the heir of some noble house that is set to inherit a fortune? Is Bob the son of some famous mage that sets him up with high levels of expectations from everyone else?

Many OC authors want their OC to have some sort of importance in their bloodline - me included; it is important to write down the details so this particular relationship doesn't get jumbled up as the story progresses.

For Bob, let's say he is a dragon slayer with no known relatives other than his dragon, so for what I would put here, is this:

Dragon Parent - Dragon of 'Insert element here.'

Character Description: This is where I would write the appearance of my characters, as well as all the different traits of their personality. Usually, this is the _longest _part of the actual character data sheet (at least in this example as I usually add in the specifications of their magic after too).

So, for Bob, what exactly would I put here? While Bob is an anti-hero who is generally uninterested in interacting with people, we have to figure out some of the details regarding that. While Bob does not care to talk to others, how would he react if other people were to talk to him? Would he be cordial to strangers or would he be hostile to anyone he doesn't already trust? This particular detail could determine some parts of his appearance.

For this example, let's have Bob be cordial to strangers. Which means, while he wouldn't engage in conversations unless he needs to, he wouldn't have issues sustaining one either. Knowing this detail, Bob probably wouldn't be garbed in spikes like a straight up satanic cult that only listen to Harsh Wall Noise but would rather wear something that would make him seem more approachable, such as a vest and some trousers.

Just from this detail, he would have traits from the 'Gentlemen Thief' archetype - basically a lone wolf that's more sophisticated and charming than other people who would be thieves.

Now that we have a more information, we can start drafting his appearance. Physical attributes that aren't really important to the personality will also be listed below.

Hair Colour: Light Brown - The hair colour is not important to his character; this can be green, blue, or whatever the fuck. However, if you plan on making your OC's hair colour outside of the norm, make sure to have something in his family relations and/or backstory to explain that particular change. If you simply want the hair colour to be naturally rainbow _just _to be different, then _**please kindly leave.**_

Eye Colour: Brown - Again, eye colour isn't relevant to his personality. If you want to write it so somehow his eye colour is a method of identification to an ancient bloodline, go right ahead. HOWEVER, if you decide to give an OC some weird shit like a silver left eye and a gold right eye, then _**please kindly fucking leave.**_

Height (Full Grown): 180cm or 5'11" - Height isn't too important, pretty average for a man. Not a manlet or a tall chad. No need for insecurity to be thrown in here, _nor _arrogance from being a 6'10'' giant.

Face Shape: Square chin, sharp jawline, a pointed nose, and slightly sunken eyes. Remember, these attributes is to mainly help out the reader (as well as yourself) with visualizing the character. None of these would be overly important to the plot unless you purposely made it so.

Common Clothing: Dress shirt with flexible fitting trousers; a vest and a belt. Again, what your OC wears should NOT BE FUCKING important UNLESS, their clothing symbolizes some part of their backstory or heritage - ex. Natsu wearing the scarf Igneel made him. For some odd reason, OC authors love over-describing their character's clothing with purple prose. Honestly, you shouldn't describe a character's appearance with more than two sentences UNLESS, the extra detail is somehow important to the plot.

Body Type: Mesomorph, have lean muscle and low-fat percentage - the reason why he would be this body type, opposed to being built like a bodybuilder, being very skinny, or being fat, is because he is an independent mage that is an anti-hero. While not _actually _being a thief, what Bob does on a regular basis would favour a leaner, more athletic build that would grant him greater endurance, speed, and dexterity.

Now that we have a general of what Bob looks like, we can now move on to specifics of personality.

Flaws: In terms of personality, this particular section is probably the LEAST built because of just how little flaws all the fucking Mary Sue OC's have. If you want any form of development or tension, your character HAS to have flaws. ACTUAL flaws. Not fucking informed flaws, _actual _flaws. What this means, is that Bob needs to have some trait about him that causes him to make mistakes, or at least non-ideal decisions. These decisions made would often negatively impact the character or their surroundings, creating tension, drama, or even fucking up things in some way or form.

Ex. A good example maybe people know, is when a character prone to anger is goaded into attacking first, then they fall for a trap and basically gets their ass handed to them. THAT is a flaw. An arc requiring that particular character to be patient and reign himself in would allow for character development.

In short, a flaw is something that makes your character vulnerable in some way or form.

Now, what sort of flaws would Bob have? From being a loner and anti-hero, he likely lived and survived on his own for a while, meaning his individual competence wouldn't be the issue. He would likely issues working with other people, either because he doesn't trust potential allies, or he insists on doing everything himself which results in him biting off more than he can chew. This would then fuck something that would otherwise be easy had he worked with others.

Now, while this could be his main flaw, he could also have OCD from the lack of control he had in his life. As Bob has lived a nomadic life, it is likely he would sometimes be forced to move, or at least decided to move himself with great reluctance. Having that lack of control could have developed into acute conscientiousness and OCD, where Bob would need knowledge for EVERYTHING that he is doing, and to do it as _soon _as possible. Not only that, but it would be hard for him to stay still due to his mind constantly moving, forcing him to fidget around to act as an outlet of the energy. This particular flaw would also enhance the original flaw, making it far more damaging than it was originally.

Now, Bob could have many other flaws, but let's stick with these two for now.

On another note, you have to be careful on what flaws you add to the character. For example, if you made Bob be a lazy person, that _would _be contradicting to his previously established character. To be lazy means to _not _care about the details. However, because Bob has OCD, he _would _be a conscientious person, meaning he would _not _be lazy. If you have Bob acting lazy in one scene, then suddenly needing to finish everything in another, then that would be contradicting traits.

Note: someone being lazy from being a perfectionist and not doing anything in fear of not meeting standards is NOT contradicting - pretty common in real life for some odd reason. Being lazy and conscientious at the same time IS.

Informed Flaws: If you have read my Trope Discussions, then you probably have an idea of what this is. If not, then I shall explain it to you now.

An informed flaw is a flaw that the author _tells _you in some way or form. This could be the character telling the other characters in dialogue form, or even just the author narrating the flaw. Informed of flaws are 'informed,' because they do not actually take place in a scene.

For example, an author could inform the audience of an OC being clumsy, but then in the actual story, there wouldn't be any moment where the character actually IS clumsy. They never trip, fall, drop things, and are otherwise as dextrous as all the other characters.

Never use informed flaws. It is evil, it is bad, and if you use it, you should find the closest forest fire and streak in the middle of it. So, you got called out for having a Mary Sue, you edited in three paragraphs of flaws and change nothing. You smile to yourself thinking that the character can no longer be a Mary Sue considering they have flaws. Nope, you just sprayed whipped cream over week-old shit, put it on a plate and dumped glitter over it to hopefully hide how shit it is.

Anyways, what I want you to get from this particular section, is write your scenes out where the character actually _shows_ the flaw. For a clumsy OC, they could actually trip and end up falling down a mountain, injuring themselves and having to be carried for the rest of the mission. See? THAT would be a pretty horrendous thing to happen for someone clumsy. They hurt themselves, burdened their team mates, and basically became dead weight for the majority of the mission.

Remember what I said about flaws? Flaws are traits that make your character vulnerable in some way or form. An _informed _flaw is a flaw that does _not _make your character vulnerable. A Mary Sue character is often filled with informed flaws as Mary Sue characters are not vulnerable to their own 'flaws.'

Strengths: Strengths! Everybody loves strengths. By strengths, I mean the different traits of your OC's personality that could make them better suited for certain situations compared to other characters.

Ex. If your OC was really patient, then they would be far more competent in a stealth mission than Natsu.

Remember, _some _traits could be flaws _and _strengths, depending on the situation.

What I said about extreme conscientiousness and OCD, could very well be a strength in a scenario that would require an acute attention to detail. Not only that, preferring to go solo, in a situation where people are known to screw you over and scam you, could be a strength as well that ends up with the OC avoiding that because of their own introversion.

Anyways, instead of going through the slightly confusing process of making the OC's flaw trait play as strengths, we are going to give Bob some separate qualities that will be a strength. However, we have to be careful in not giving him a strength that could contradict with a flaw.

Ex. If I said he was very patient and able to remain very still, that might contradict with his OCD.

However, his strength COULD be exceptional self control. Basically, if he was in a situation where he_ had_ to stay still, then he might be able to force himself to remain steady and silent, despite a massive urge to move around and fix inconsistencies in his environment.

Since we gave Bob two flaws, I think we should give him two separate strengths as well. The first one allows him, to some extent, prevent his flaws from fucking things up for him - although there might be times where his OCD wins out, causing him to get discovered in a stealth mission, etc.

For his second strength, let's say due to the speed his brain moves at (which also causes his OCD and potential ADHD), he is also a _very _fast thinker. Bob can improvise plans on the fly, his attention to detail could also allow him to make use of the environment around him as he enters. Not only that, he could also be quick at making comebacks, making him both charming and clever.

Now, from what I did here, you could say I used the same traits to develop both his strengths and weaknesses. However, I am NOT making his weakness a strength.

Bob has a high attention to detail and fast thinking speed. While these two traits could be seen as strengths, they actually manifest as both flaws and strengths - where his backstory from lack of control morphed those traits into OCD, and the same traits allowed him to be better in certain situations than other characters.

Anyways, to conclude strengths and flaws, I want to say that the most important thing about these two parts is to think of not _just _the strengths and weaknesses, but also how the OC _got _the strengths and weaknesses. What experience did they go through to gain these traits? What natural traits could have manifested into a flaw or strength? How would these flaw/strengths change the way the OC acts and reacts in certain situations?

If you are able to answer those questions, then writing each and every scene would be A LOT easier for you.

Quirks (A wondrous reference to the works of the Muffins of Corn): Okay by quirks, I don't mean the superpowers from BNHA, I mean small details that would differentiate your character from another character of a similar archetype. This is basically what your OC prefers to do over others, as in, maybe the OC likes chocolate more than gumdrops, maybe your OC likes waking up in the morning as opposed to staying late at night. Maybe your OC is mentally deficient and takes ALL their TRAITS FROM FUCKING CANON CHARACTERS, PLEASE FUCK NO.

These small details are what makes your character 'alive.' Instead of just having straight up faults and strengths, these details and the scenes _showing _these details, act as a reprieve to the action, making the characters look more human as opposed to just a creation going on a quest to do whatever the fuck.

Now, while these quirks don't necessarily _have _to be related to other parts of his personality, if they _do _tie in to their core traits, that makes the character _that _much better.

Some canon example would be Cana drinking like absolute hell, Erza slamming people into her chest plate or knocking people out quickly, Gray stripping, or Jura calling everyone with the -dono or 'master' prefix.

For our example, we know that Bob is a fast-thinker, conscientious, and likely has some form of ADHD. This means, it is unlikely he would enjoy something such as gardening or fishing as they are tasks that normally require patience. Even if he has exceptional self control and forces himself to do it, Bob wouldn't do tasks he doesn't like. Even if you say Bob does the tasks he doesn't like just to practice patience, then I would say there are probably better methods to do so then fishing or gardening.

From Bob's traits, what would some things that would compliment his character, and would be something that he does? Something small could be that Bob fiddles with fingers every time he begins talking, as his mind is moving really faster. Another thing could be that every time he gets angry, Bob could instinctively start whacking whatever is beside him, person _or _object.

In this example, I shall give Bob just two traits, just like with flaws and strengths.

Bob prefers to do things on his own, so when he eats, he subconsciously secludes himself in the corner so he can eat away from commotion. The second quirk would be Bob jogging in different areas while noting all the different details as he goes through the scenery. While these are just two small quirks (which can potentially actually be used as a plot device), you can put even more minor day-to-day life quirks such as what food Bob may prefer to the other.

Off-Time (Shout out to Corn Muffins): Supplementary to quirk, off-time refers to what the character does when there is no tension in the plot, no mission, or no clear goal in the timeline. Even IF the OC has some long-term goal like achieve piece or whatever the fuck, they can still take some time to recover or to alleviate some stress.

What they do in their off-time could speak a lot about their character. Not doing _anything _in their off-time could also speak about someone's character - such as they are a workaholic that should break every once in awhile, so they don't burn out mid-project.

What are some examples characters could do in their off time? Remember, this does _not _include training or doing things that are bettering themselves in some way or form. So, for those of you that go to the gym, that technically _wouldn't _be off-time as it is part of your self-betterment routine. Something that _would _be off-time would be taking a walk in the park to take your mind off work. In this scenario, you're not really getting a workout from walking for twenty minutes (unless you're a fucking fat ass), and it serves to pass time while alleviating some stress.

Anyways, if we look at canon characters, we know Natsu goes fishing with Happy on his off-time, Lucy writes novels on her off-time, Erza apparently reads erotica on _her _off-time, and Levy just reads in both her off-time and in her 'mind training' time.

Now, for your OC, what could be some things _they _do for their off-time? You don't really need too many things for off-time, personally, I would go for one to three main things. Although those things could change over time, the number of things they actively do at any time should be between one and three.

For example, I personally: nap, watch movies, or hang out with my buddies in my off-time.

For Bob, we will use the example used in the previous quirk section regarding his jogging. When Bob is off a mission, he likes jogging in the forest and note all the things he sees. It could be trees, flowers, the number of birds he sees, or really just anything.

This particular activity helps Bob alleviate some of his stress, act as an outlet for his massive amounts of mental energy, and also serves to pass time.

Bob doesn't really need a second or third thing. Considering that he is relatively anti-social, when he is not doing his first thing, he would likely be doing his self-betterment routines or just brood in the corner.

Goal: Now, a goal is important because it would likely shape your character arcs or even the plot itself if the OC IS the main character (I say that but believe me, there are authors that write their OC as a side character - seriously why).

A is basically what your character is trying to achieve; there could be multiple goals: an endgame goal, a local goal, a side goal, or a current goal.

Endgame Goal: What an endgame goal is, is something your character or the story is trying to achieve for the ENTIRE story line. The endgame goal is usually established early on vaguely and becomes more and more prevalent to the plot as the story continues.

Ex. Defeating Voldemort would be Harry Potter's endgame goal. While Voldemort is introduced in the first book, his presence isn't as noticeable until after the 4th book, where he revives.

It is important to figure out an endgame goal for your characters, _even_ if you write it episodically. It is true, some endgame goals aren't introduced until later on, but usually, there is one big enemy or antagonist that the main character has to overcome to end their story arc.

Ex. In Fairy Tail, Zeref/Acnologia would be the endgame antagonists as they were introduced in previous arcs and was not defeated until the final arc.

Local Goal [Arc Goals too]: While an endgame goal is something that OC tries to achieve for the WHOLE story, the local goal is something that is localized to certain arcs. This would be something that is higher priority for your OC to complete, even if it is not at the same level of scale as the endgame goal.

Ex. An easy example of a local goal would be during the Phantom Lord Arc. The local goal, or the goal of the arc, is for Fairy Tail to defeat Phantom Lord (Or Jose); they are the main antagonists that Fairy Tail has to overcome for the arc.

Side Goal: A side goal is something your character is trying to achieve, while not being directly related to the plot. It is not to say that it isn't _important _to the plot, but simply isn't directly related.

For example, if your OC has a scene of him trying to learn how to build a house, then _that _would be a side goal because it isn't related to the endgame goal or the local goal.

Now, while you could say that building a house could be a local goal if the arc was a house-building contest, I wrote this particular section assuming that the local goal would be completing a job or completing a mission.

However, you _could _say that side goals are basically local goals when there are no active arcs that are happening. Local goals of in-between arcs if you will.

Current Goal: While a current goal _could _be the endgame goal, side goal, _or _the local goal, the currently goal refers to what your character is actively trying to achieve at moment. Meaning, if the story is on CH23 or some shit and your character is trying to learn how to cook, then your current goal would likely be a side goal.

Now that we know the different goals, let's look at some examples of other franchises. If we look at Naruto, he had multiple goals throughout the manga: achieve peace, become Hokage, bring Sasuke back to the village, master the Rasenshuriken, etc.

Now, while achieving peace didn't come until he had influence from Jiraiya, both achieving peace, becoming Hokage, and bringing Sasuke back to the village would be endgame goals.

When he tries to master the Rasenshuriken, that is a local goal because that is something he is doing _specifically _for the arc. Naruto will learn the technique in a couple episodes, achieving the goal relatively quickly. This isn't a side goal at it is directly related to the arc goal, where he is learning the technique so he could end up defeating Kakuzu from Akatsuki,

On a side note, there could be MANY local goals in a single arc. How I would separate them is the time-frame required to actually do them.

For example, defeating Jose would be the largest local goal of the Phantom Lord Arc - where the 'Arc' goal is to defeat Phantom Lord itself as a whole. When Natsu is fighting Gajeel, the local goal would be 'to defeat Gajeel.' While defeating Gajeel doesn't necessarily end the arc, it is something that one of the main characters have to achieve to further the story.

Anyways, now that we know what goals are, what could some goals that Bob could have?

While we didn't have a backstory for Bob, we could just have a goal that fits his personality and build the backstory later.

Let's say for Bob, his initial goal is to find somewhere that he could call home. Basically, living his entire life as a nomad has him wanting for a place where he could stay and not have to bounce from place to place having to be cautious all the time. Bob wants a place where he could return every day and not have people wanting him to leave. Depending on how you write the story, this could be a local goal or an endgame goal. If you are writing a epic-lengthed story, then I would say this is probably a local goal.

What could be his end game goal? It really depends on what scale you are writing the story with. If you are writing Bob into canon with no clear OC arcs, then I wouldn't really say he _has _an endgame goal. He really just has a local goal that consistently refreshes itself - such as not dying and prevent his home from being fucked.

However, if Bob DOES have an OC arc and the story is OC-centric, then an endgame goal could be to defeat this one enemy that had been his archnemesis for his whole life and defeating him will finally allow him to find peace.

There could be a million other goals Bob could have, as it all depends on what arcs you want to write, what sort of development you want your OC to have, and what direction you want his magic or character to take. These are just some examples that I hope by reading, will allow you to know what a goal is, and be able to write down ones for your own OC.

Continuing!

Motivation: Yet ANOTHER thing that can make or break a character. Motivation is the reason why your character does what they do. As in, _why _do they do what they do, why they want to achieve certain goals, and why they continue to do so despite their challenges.

Oh, before I start, Corn Muffins would like to say something to you guys.

**If you say "Protect ma Nakama", please fuck off :)**

Thank you, sir!

Anyways, just like that, 'protecting my friends' is likely the most overdone, overrated, cliché, and bland goal ever made. Seriously, if your OC had a tragic past and lost all their friends, they could have something more fitting such as: having the strength to defy fate, not being helpless, being strong enough to change what caused their injustice, or literally ANYTHING ELSE.

When OC's that have just had all their friends/family die suddenly exclaim to a dragon or mentor that they want strength to protect their strength is rather nonsensical in my eyes. When a character is basically all alone, and the only thing they can think of is to quickly make new friends just so he doesn't have to lose them? Realistically, I think characters that just lost everyone they love would probably be reluctant to randomly make new friends _because_ they are still grieving. They would likely become colder and choose to gain strength so they can prevent whatever happened to him from happening to others - if he has a hero complex, or they could end those who would do unto others what they did on him - if he is an anti-hero.

Anyways, the motivation of your character stems from their backstory, individual interests, and passion. If you had an OC with a tragic past, you could either chose one of the above, have them set on a path of vengeance, or maybe even do something to make peace with the people they have lost - if they feel some sort of blame from their demise.

Think of some real-life motivation as an example. What are some motivations that people may have to go to the gym? Some people might want to lose weight, some people might want to look like Ronnie Coleman, and some people might just want to be able to lift more.

Regardless, those are all motivations that will cause someone to do something they might not normally want to do.

What are some possible motivations to common goals? That are NOT protecting NAY-KAY-MAY because honestly, fuck no. Let's say an OC wants to become an S-Class Mage - that's their goal. Once the OC becomes an S-Class mage, the story is over and anything coming after would be a sequel. Although NOT an endgame goal. An endgame goal spans an entire story and once is achieved, anything else is basically the story of another character or event altogether.

Anyways, why does the OC want to be an S-Class? Do they want to get self-security like Cana? Do they want to prove their own strength like Natsu? Before we go to that, we have to ask ourselves, what does becoming S-Class do for the OC? What will actually happen _if _they achieve it? Would they have proven someone wrong? Would they have been able to go on a mission they wanted to go for awhile but couldn't? Could they have earned respect from someone that constantly looked down on them?

Let's say, the OC wants to be S-Class because Laxus wouldn't stop taunting him and talking shit. The OC somehow believes that the moment he gets S-Class, Laxus would respect him - even though this probably isn't the case because he talks shit about Erza as well. Anyways, let's say the OC believes that, and he tries everything he can to S-Class.

While not exactly a deep motivation, it's a motivation nonetheless.

Now, what would be a 'deeper' motivation? Let's say Bob escaped as a refuge from some random country and basically abandoned some of the people he had considered as friends. Bob does not know if they are dead, alive, or just suffering in general. His fear for his own safety and his desire for his own life prevents him from straight up going back guns blazing, but the guilt of leaving people that were kind to him to their fates had always stuck to him.

From this, his motivation could be to bring forth change that will make it impossible for the conditions in his home country to continue. Perhaps the government was corrupt, the rich abused the poor, and crime riddled the streets. Perhaps his endgame goal, is to one day gain enough strength and influence in his new life, to fix the wrongs in the past.

Remember, he DOESN'T owe anything to the country.

While he feels bad about leaving, he is not obligated to return. Most people would probably understand his choice for leaving, and only the truly salty and vengeful would shout at Bob for leaving.

The main motivation however, stems from _peace. _Not just peace in the country, but _inner _peace. Perhaps Bob is constantly fighting between him finding a home and returning to help his birthplace. Which means, if he finds a house somewhere in Fiore or wherever the fuck, he will never truly find peace because he's always thinking about his birth country. The only way Bob would truly find happiness or to reach his goals, is either he fixes the country and rights what he believes are the wrongs of his past, or to understand that he is no longer in that country, accept that suffering will exist regardless of his interference, and move on. Both are equally hard for him.

Likes: A simpler topic, an OC's 'likes' is really just a list of things that they feel positive about. It helps with keeping your characters in character, for them to react to things that they like consistently, and to also expand on the character itself - making them seem more human.

If you were looking at a random generic dragon slayer OC, their likes could be: Dragons, his NAY-KAY-MAY, strawberries if the pairing is OCxErza, fighting, etc.

For the list of things the OC likes, there will be things that are tied deeper to their character (like dragons with the dragon slayer OC), and there will be things that are more of a quirk more than anything.

Ex. The dragon slayer OC likes to bake cookies - this particular trait wouldn't really be relevant to his character and is more of a fun little trait to make them feel more alive and unique.

So, what would be the things that Bob like?

For some of the more relevant ones, Bob would likely like: Peace, alone time, and the people he considers allies.

For some of the less relevant ones, Bob could like: Wine, travelling (particularly in nature), forests, making cookies, shopping.

For your own OC, you should have a few things they like that ARE relevant to their personality/backstory. These are things that are integral to their character, and you should be adding this part as a bare _minimum._ The non-relevant likes are not necessary for a compelling story, but adding aspects to make your character seem more human would make your story _that _much better.

Dislikes: Dislikes, like likes, can stem from their personality and backstory. Some of their own dislikes could also stem from the OC's own insecurities, where they dislike people who do a certain thing because they are ashamed that they used to do that particular thing as well.

Ex. How I dislike people who like harems because I used to like it years back.

Although on a side note,** fuck harems, fuck that trope, fuck crush blushing, and fuck stories with harems; harems are like six million Hitler's all coming together just to club on 9/11. **

Anyways, if we look at Dragon Slayer OC's, they could dislike things such as: not being able to protect their Nakama, their dragons leaving, Acnologia, and whatever fuckhead that orchestrated their tragic backstory.

Just like with 'likes,' there will be things that an OC dislikes because it's ingrained in their character, things that they dislike as a pet peeve, or things that are more loosely based on one of their traits.

Ex. A conscientious person might dislike things running out of stock in stores because they will have to come again. It's not as tightly linked as let's say, disliking a lazy person (which is someone with the opposite standards from them), but we can still see an indirect linkage.

Now, with Bob, what would be some relevant things he dislikes? Some examples would be the conditions of his birthplace, travelling not under his own will, people who dislike him because of rumours, himself for leaving the country, and people who are overly friendly.

And for the irrelevant list: the rain (because he can't jog outside when it's raining), stores closing early, raisins, people who forget to wash the dishes, and overpriced items.

One thing to remember when you are making likes and dislikes, is to actually _write _scenes that show your character having these dislikes. If you're not going to write scenes that explore the part of your character that you came up with, then that particular trait is pointless and should be removed to avoid confusion.

**Interactions [More shout outs to our vegan baker]: **Interactions!

Exactly as the section title suggests, interactions are how your OC interacts with different types of people! This could be friends, strangers, family, the government (such as the magic council), people of authority, elders, younger people, enemies, and people who in the past have fucked them.

Intermission: That anime forgiveness trope? Dude literally tortures the shit out of a character and the character forgives them just like that. The forgiven villain goes and keeps killing people, thousands more die, then everyone goes to the character that let them go 'it's not your fault.' PLEASE.

Anyways, while not exactly required during the 'building' phase, it is important to know your OC's personality enough so you CAN do it when you need it.

Ex. You want to figure out how the OC will interact with the magic council when they try to impose restrictions or have an agent get in contact with them - if you have a scene coming up that will require this knowledge.

While it's true, how a character interacts with canon characters or other OC's is a grey zone, it is important to remain _in _the grey zone. Which means, you don't want to have Fairy Tail members encouraging an OC to murder on their first meeting. That is _not _in the grey zone and should be deleted _right away. _

On the Fairy Tail wiki, there's usually a personality section for all the canon characters, it is good to refer to them when you are writing interactions to keep everyone in character. If you are one of those people that change the backstory of a canon character (for whatever reason), then make sure to keep them acting consistently to how they have acted in YOUR story. Even if you don't intend on revealing the backstory changes until later.

Every author has different understandings of their own and canon characters. Sometimes, the differences in understanding could mean different interactions written by different authors. I would like to think, that most if not all authors following the canon personalities will end up close to each other, in terms of how they write interactions between characters. However, there's always the black sheep that make EVERY FUCKING GIRL BLUSH AT THEIR OC AT FIRST GLANCE. If you do this _**then please kindly leave, also kill yourself.**_

Regardless, let us begin with various types of interactions.

Friends: How would the OC interact with their friends? Will they be cold to them like anti-heroes, but secretly care for them in terms of their actions? Would they insult them continuously, but show their care in a certain way? Would they be cordial and kind, more so as when compared to strangers? I'll be using Bob again for the example and will be splitting this category into three more subcategories: best friends, friends, and acquaintances.

Best Friends: The best friend is basically someone that is closer to the OC than anyone else in the story. While friends is someone you would hang out with regularly, the best friend is someone you would divulge your woes to. They are someone the OC feels fine crying in front, trust enough to be vulnerable, and they are someone that they know can be honest with regardless how offensive they might be.

While Bob might not have any best friends (as far as I'm concerned), I can still guess at how he would treat someone that fit this description. As we all know, Bob is slightly introverted, cordial, sophisticated, charming, and doesn't talk about his own past/problems even if he looks fine on the surface. If Bob DID have someone that fits the 'best friend' category, he would be willing to drop the charming thief act to reveal the insecurities and vulnerabilities.

Now, I'm not saying Bob would randomly cry on the best friend's shoulder while eating spoonsful of ice cream, but Bob may angrily divulge his woes after the best friend (who cares for him) continuously pokes at the insecurity, trying to get them to come out. It might not necessarily be a smooth transition, but the best friend character would be the only person capable of getting Bob's problems out of his mouth. If anyone else tries, then he would probably retract further in, change the subject with a joke, or even just straight up ignore them if they go too far.

If Bob's best friend came to him for help, Bob would likely go out of his way just to do so, and likely do it with great fervour.

Friends: What is the difference between best friends and just regular friends? While with best friends, you trust them completely to the point you are willing to be vulnerable, regular friends will not be someone you do that with.

Regular friends are people you go to the club with, hang out with, visit each other's houses on occasion, and basically someone you would make plans with on a regular basis - you do this with best friends too just without the deep relationship part.

Considering that Bob is a loner, he probably wouldn't have many friends, if any. There might be some other loner-type people that he meets up with every once in a while, or maybe a merchant/trader that they frequent.

So how would Bob interact with those two people, or any others that fit into this category?

I believe Bob would still be his sophisticated charming self, although he would likely be more genuine and less/more mischievous, depending on the relationship he has with that particular 'friend.'

If Bob were friends with, less say Cana, then Bob would likely act flirty with her, while actively trolling her at the same time.

If he were friends with Natsu, then he would likely be more offensive in his taunting, often goading Natsu just to dodge at the last second and have him run into a wall, then Bob would probably laugh at him before going towards his business.

Now keep in mind that Bob was originally a cold person. These examples with best friends and friends assume that he is no longer cold. This is because Bob's coldness comes from his slight introversion and from being alone. If he managed to make friends, then he likely developed from that quality somewhere around the line.

If one of these friends were to ask for help, Bob would likely say yes if it was convenient for him, but he wouldn't actively go out of his way for everyone (unless it's a matter of importance such as them getting evicted or something).

Acquaintance: Out of the three types of friends, acquaintances would be the closest to strangers. These are the people that you just met at a work place, and you talked to them maybe two- or three-times during break. You know their names, where they work, some things they like, and a slight idea of how they talk.

These are people that you have started to find the boundaries for, are people that you can easily hold a conversation with, and someone that you are willing to ask help from.

For your own OC's, an acquaintance is basically the guild members of Fairy Tail that they talk to a few times right after joining the guild (not in one conversation, but maybe speaking them multiple times over the course of multiple days).

At the beginning, before Bob loses his coldness, most of the people he knows would likely be acquaintances. These could be the owners of places he frequently visits, people he has worked with before in missions, someone from the magic council that he is in contact with (for let's say giving the locations of dark mages), or even just some random person that he has run into before.

How would Bob interact with these people? Bob would likely act no different to his acquaintances then strangers, but he would likely trust them faster in deals, doing missions, and agreements. These are people that Bob has worked with, has some idea of their work ethics, but don't know personally.

If we imagine Bob like Flynn Ryder (Or Eugene) from Tangled, I would say Bob's probably a more sophisticated version of him. Which means he would probably treat most if not all acquaintances courteously and respectfully, with a little bit of mischievous playfulness.

When you draft relationships with characters, keep in mind that the relationships will change over the storyline. Best friends could become acquaintances, acquaintances could become best friends, friends could become enemies, AND ENEMIES COULD BECOME FRIENDS - LITERALLY THE MOST COMMON BLOODY ONE IN FANFICTION AND SHONEN.

Anyways, I will talk more about these changes in the 'development' chapter.

Strangers: By strangers, I mean people that the OC has never met before, or even people they only had a few conversations with. Of course, it really depends on the character when it comes to how quickly strangers become acquaintances, acquaintances become friends, and friends become best friends.

If you were an extrovert, everyone could be an acquaintance in your eyes after the first conversation.

If you had an OC Dragon Slayer that closely resembled Natsu, then they would probably see everyone they meet as acquaintances unless they act hostile towards them first thing - and even then, they might only take a few more conversations to see them as acquaintances.

Anyways, if we look at Bob's current personality, he would treat strangers with a level of respect and charm. This would be true for people that initially act hostile towards him as well. In fact, the only different would likely be the mischievous factor that is added on top of the regular gentleman-like behaviour. Remember, his sophistication and 'charm' comes from his fast thinking and would be more of a mask that he uses to keep people from knowing his true feelings inside.

For your own OC's however, I would not recommend using the 'friend everything' because that is an overused trope. Try to branch away from canon characters as well. Just think about how YOU interact with strangers, how your friends interact with strangers, and perhaps use those as inspiration for your own character. Fiction written with basis in reality is always the easiest to write after all.

Figures of Authority: When it comes to authority figures, you have probably seen OC's that stand up to one (regardless of who they are), get praised for their boldness, and basically get left off with naught a slap on the wrist? That is ONE of the different ways that a character can interact with authority.

However, that particular method is something I would recommend AGAINST because it is complete horse shit. It is cliché, Mary Sue, and a plot device that should not have solved that particular issue. The reason I think this, is because when an author introduces tension in the form of getting into to shit with an authority figure (let's say a military captain whose presence is relatively noticeably in the current arc), the OC will probably need some way or form to get by. Then, the OC basically puts on a bravado then everything is solved because **MARY SUE HURR DURR CHARACTER SO GREAT.** Then the military captain is suddenly their friend. Honestly, I see this shit in anime, manga, and so many different Fanfictions, it makes me wonder, why not literally _anything _else?

Anyways, this section will be a bit long because I want to make some examples on how different OC's might interact with authority figures that is NOT acting like a dick and being praised for their boldness.

On a side note: you know what I would love to see? An OC acting brash and bold and managing to get an official to leave, but then they come back with even more force and end up fucking the OC harder. The OC worsens consequences that otherwise would have been reasonable because of their own actions, and it would have been far better had they just showed respect and acceptance. Instead of being praised for their dickery, they are PUNISHED for it. I literally never see this happening, it's always the former.

Ex. You guys know Ser Davos from Game of Thrones? The way he argues and convinces people is with genuine passion and reason - like how he convinced the Iron Bank to support Stannis, or for Lyanna Mormont to support Jon Snow. THAT could be a brilliant way to talk to authority.

Your OC could be respectful to authority instead of acting brash or like an immature highschool chad. Then, the OC will present actual arguments in their favour, while using their own passion to sway the other side. Instead of being praised for their boldness, the authority figure could then believe in the OC's words, giving them a chance to prove themselves, or to make amends.

Of course, there are multiple types of authority, but I think how a character will interact with each type would likely be very similar from the other.

Nobility: For the most part, this type of authority assumes that the character inherited their position. This could be the king, a fat noble, a business owner, etc. OC's who are completely stubborn or Mary Sue might go with that 'respect is earned bullshit' that every anti-hero Jerk Sue loves sprouting. However, I believe that any reasonable person would treat ANYONE with a level of respect for their person. I'm not saying that the OC should ass-kiss whoever is a noble, but they should at least treat them with cordiality and respect - such as addressing them with their titles (ex. Lord Blah or Count Blah, don't need to overexaggerate with shit like 'your omnipotent majesty').

Think of it this way, if you were in a classroom environment, you would probably address your teacher with Mr. Something, right? Only the delinquent assholes would address their teacher by disrespectful names or their first name. You know what happens to these delinquent assholes? They probably get suspended and end up getting arrested. The teacher does NOT praise them for their attitude, but instead sends them straight to the principle's office.

So, if you are dead set on writing a character that acts like an asshole, is a delinquent, and an anti-hero who generally has no likable qualities except for the select few who thinks being a 'bad boy' is cool, AT LEAST have their horrible attitudes bite them in the ass some time. Maybe the OC talks shit to the council and ends up doubling Fairy Tail's debt or even getting certain privileges revoked.

Anyways, how would Bob react to nobility? Considering his personality, I believe bob would be respectful and charming at the same time. Nobles would likely like him for his character, and Bob would likely flirt with Princess Hisui if they met (subtly of course). However, if there was a asshole noble that Bob knows is an asshole, he would likely overexaggerate titles and insult in a way that people can't really tell is an insult.

Ex. The Magnificent Lord of Potatoes (a noble who's main trade is potatoes) or even say shit such as 'I'm sure his grace is more than deserving of a lunch break' (if the noble was fat).

Seniority: Seniority is basically any other character that has been doing something the OC does for longer (does not necessarily have a higher rank). This could be an older mage (such as Gildarts it the OC is in Fairy Tail), a rune knight that has been a mage for longer, or even someone in the same line of work that has been doing it for longer.

For the most part, people who likely treat their seniors with the same level of respect as others - base level of cordiality and respect. However, if the OC has known the senior personally, and know of their actions as a senior, then they might treat them with more respect because they aspire to be like them or look up to them in some way or form.

Of course, there are many circumstances where an OC might act differently compared to others. For example, if the OC was Rune Knight, he would likely treat an older Rune Knight of the _same _rank with more respect than he treats the younger knights. This is because the OC has been taught to address the higher ranks properly. Even if the senior Rune Knight has the same rank, the seniority alone could have been a pseudo rank - causing the difference in treatment.

Now, if Bob (while he was still travelling independently), knew of an old man who lives similarly to he, then how would he treat him when they meet?

Let's say the two have some sort of uncle-nephew relationship, which means that Bob might call the senior character 'old man' or some other nickname.

If the two were friends or closer, they might even act like old drinking buddies (not completely drunk of course), but more like the sipping their drinks while telling stories type of drinking.

Anyways, let's move on to elderly :)

Elderly: For this, I simply refer to people that are older than the OC. Let us assume that the elderly characters have no positions of power or anything, which means they won't cross blend with this section. The elderly I am referring to, are the people your OC has various relationships too (like an old teacher, their grandparents, or maybe just a random old man they just met). Which means, Makarov would not be part of this since his position of Guild Master would change the way the OC interacts with them.

Anyways, let's do a more common example. If your OC is looking for directions and is asking an old man for them, how would they react?

Well, if your OC is the asshole authority basher, then they would probably start with 'Hey Old Man! Do you know where this is?' in a more aggressive manner.

If the OC was a respectful person, they might start with 'Excuse me sir, do you mind pointing me towards this?' I would like to think this is how most people who ask for directions.

So how would Bob talk to them? If on one of his missions, Bob's client was an old man, he would likely address him as 'mister or sir if they have an aura of sophistication.' If that particular client was gruff and tough, Bob would likely still act the same way because his mischievous charming side would not allow him to be intimidated by his client. Of course, it wouldn't spill over and cause him to be disrespectful either.

Government: Arguably the group of people that get the most shit from OC's and bashing from authors, the government refers to whatever association that controls the area. These may include magic council, the Fiore royal family, Alvarez empire, etc.

For some reason, OC stories usually play the magic council as incompetent old fools that have nothing better to do than to make the mages of Fairy Tail's life harder. Now, I can see how you might think that considering how Mashima wrote them, but I highly doubt that is the case.

Remember the scene where Makarov basically tells the magic council to go fuck themselves? He is basically not caring about the result of their destruction and damages caused. Elfman PUNCHED his fucking client over a disagreement. Funny as that sounds, that is _not _how a legal mage should act.

The complaints from the council are GENUINE complaints. As in, destroying half of a town could have made thousands homeless, lost people their livelihoods, and likely injured people or even condemning them to the life of a cripple. Yet, these are played off to make the magic council seem like the bad guy.

Now, if you were an OC Dragon Slayer, how would you react to the magic council? Assuming there isn't much differentiation from the canon cast, you likely wouldn't show much respect to the council, considering how Natsu just stormed right into a trial. Imagine doing this in real life. I know what some of you might be thinking - 'REALISM? IT'S A WORLD WITH MAGIC AND DRAGONS?!' No, that is NOT a valid argument. Do you know why? Because when it comes to realism, the existence of magic and dragons is as realistic to Fairy Tail as cars and planes are for us.

Which means, the magic council SHOULD, inarguably, function similarly to our own governments UNLESS the story saying otherwise. Or at least the governments that were once used in history - such as the English parliament in the 1600's.

Other than the magic council, what about the Rune Knights? Considering the Rune Knights are basically the police/military of the Magic Council, how your character treats them should resemble how you yourself treat the police or even a soldier.

An OC as rowdy as Natsu would probably tell a member of the Rune Knights to fuck right off, so the others would likely have to prevent him from interacting with one of them as to prevent him from fucking shit up for them.

Anyways, how would Bob interact with the government?

Considering the magic council doesn't really like him, I would assume that Bob would act rather mischievous and troll-ish from he is dealing with someone from the council. He likely speaks in a way that minimizes their interaction - he tries to finish their business and leave the magic council official as soon as possible.

In fact, depending on who 'visits' him, he might even come off as rude - this could become a detail expanded on between the relationship between Bob and the magic council.

Dark Mages and Enemies: For Dark mages, let us focus on ACTUAL dark mages. Not just people labeled as dark mages and have ambiguous motivations, but people like Erigor. These guys are the true assholes of the Fairy Tail fandom and basically do bad shit cause they can or for personal gain.

So how would a character react to dark mages? Would they start a philosophy session and try to out-talk them? Would they ask questions later and subdue them first? Would they go all-out no mercy and simply defeat/kill them before even trying to understand them?

If we look at the OC Dragon Slayer Natsu copy again, they would probably voice their disagreements with a couple sentences, insulting the dark mages, then attack them right away.

However, if we look at Bob, he would likely act like Spiderman does to his enemies in a trickster, slightly offensive manner. Even in them middle of battle, Bob might still hold his charming façade, all while making jokes at the dark mages' expense. Of course, considering that he is sophisticated, all his jokes/insults would be subtle. As in, he wouldn't make fun of their bad breath or anything, but he might insult their competence through some means.

Of course, when it comes to dark mages, there are varying degrees of 'dark.'

There could be people like Kageyama, who has the chance to turn 'good.' There could be Eisenwald, who's basically like a gang leader, or there could be Tartaros, who are literally demons and basically take pleasure in the suffering of others. OC's will have different reactions to all of them. In fact, an asshole Jerk Sue might just go 'I don't care I must kill you' with every one of them.

How should your OC's react?

In many stories I have read, Kageyama actually changed side by either joining Fairy Tail or becoming a legal mage. Unless your OC is a Jerk Sue, they would probably be receptive to Kageyama's choice to leave Eisenwald. However, it is likely he still has to do time for his involvement in their crimes.

One of the things I want to go over specifically, is how characters react when they meet someone that has PERSONALLY caused some of their suffering. Meaning, this particular character could have tortured, humiliated, and was the reason why they had a tragic past in the first place. This is someone the OC still HATES and has yet to find closure or peace with what they have done.

What will this OC do when they go face to face with this person? Would they randomly forgive like an all-loving hero? Would they kill the shit out of them with no questions asked right away? Or perhaps, they would actually reign in their anger and take down the enemy with a plan.

One of the things that characters should NOT DO FUCKING AT ALL, is forgive them no matter what. Enough of the 'prove you're a better man' shit. Even if you DO have your OC do this, don't be a dumbass and make your OC turn their backs on an enemy still not defeated.

Just like this, the enemy has been beaten and is on the ground, STILL breathing and likely still has some fight left. They are at your OC's mercy and what do they do? WALK AWAY LIKE A FUCKING IDIOT. Seriously, if you're going to have an OC let an enemy go, AT LEAST bind them or break their fucking bones.

'But you shouldn't beat a defeated enemy, it's dishonourable.' _**NO.**_

Have your OC understand what is honourable and what is just straight up retardation. Turning your back at an enemy THAT WANTS TO KILL YOU AND OTHER PEOPLE, is probably the worst fucking possible decision anyone can make. The only reason why people do this is, is a plot device to further tension. So no, do not do this. Fuck that.

Let's say the OC manages to NOT murder the person they have hated in cold blood. However, the OC was not a complete fucking retard, so he goes for a non-fatal blow. Instead of stabbing them in the chest, they hit them REALLY hard in the head with the pummel of the sword, or just with anything else if they are not using a sword.

THEN, while the enemy they have defeated is unconscious, they bind them, and not just with a useless fucking knot either but actually FULL BODY restraints. THEN, if the enemy is a known villain, they capture them, dump them at a local Rune Knight base, and leave.

See how that works? You CAN forgive your enemies without being a fucking idiot. Honour and 'being the better man' do not mean drop your guard AND your reason, be an idiot and let hundreds of innocent people die because you didn't think things through.

If you can't think of a better way to add tension then for previously established smart characters to be fucking idiots, then I would suggest practicing some story building before continuing. There are ways to make story arcs connect without having your characters behave like monkeys. Don't give that 'emotionally compromise' crap either. That's just lazy writing it's a gamble on a big IF.

**Personalities to Avoid: **Last but not least, I'm going to dedicate this particular section on personalities that you should not write. Not just because it's been overdone to shit, but because it fucking _**SUCKS.**_

Natsu Copy: I used this as an example in my previous sections. HOWEVER, I used it as a way to help you understand certain concepts, NOT because I encourage the usage of this particular trope. The reason why I discourage this, is because the Natsu copy doesn't do anything for your OC.

I'd like to think that when people write an OC story, they are writing to tell the story of their OC's, where the story is centric on them. I'd like to think people aren't writing an OC where they basically observe everything as a fucking side character (unless the point of the story is an observer such as writing the story in the POV of Magnolia's Mayor dealing with Fairy Tail's destructive tendencies). I would also like to think that people want to tell a compelling story with a unique character that may have SOME resemblances to the canon cast.

What I DON'T want to think, is people being fucking lazy and playing the pick-'n'-choose with canon traits where 90% is form Natsu.

Do NOT have your character say 'FIGHT ME' every time just like him. Do NOT have your character be afraid of Erza like Natsu and Gray for no fucking reason.

Intermission Rant: I read this one story where ZANCROW joins fucking Fairy Tail, and subsequently _**BECOMES AFRAID OF ERZA! FUCKING ZANCROW?!**_ The dark fucking mage that basically butt-fucked Natsu until he pulled some weird hacks and Zancrow wasn't even defeated? The dude got up minutes later and was basically fine.

If you're going to have an OC afraid of Erza, especially to the degree of Natsu, you need to WRITE A COMPELLING REASON. Hey, I get that your imaginations may have ran out at the twelve different colours of hair, but just _try._ Erza is intimidating, most of the weaker members are afraid to some extent because Erza is a self-proclaimed disciplinarian that can kick their ass. If your OC doesn't have the strength to challenge Erza, they might be just as intimidated as the other people, but THEY WON'T GO AYE SIR THE FIRST TIME THEY MEET.

If they are genuinely intimidated, they might go '…Okay, fine.' the first time. This probably won't change unless Erza genuinely beats the shit out of them like she did with Natsu and Gray.

The I-get-an-asshole-pass-cause-of-my-shitty-past: This, A.K.A _**THE JERK SUE**_, is almost as bad as the Natsu Copy. Actually, fuck it - it is _worse_ than the Natsu copy simply because it is the embodiment of all that is horrid.

So, your OC has a horrible past, his parents died, his friends died, he got betrayed by a million people, he got scammed, bullied, had his dog die of cancer, discriminated by race, survived a slave revolt, was a slave, and the other ctrl copy shit from the tragic past generator.

EVERYONE has a shitty past at Fairy Tail. Just because you decided to have a pissing contest on whose life sucks more does NOT give them a reason to be an asshole to everyone. Was Erza an asshole to everyone because she was a slave? Was Natsu a fucking asshole because his dad left him? Was Gray a freaking asshole cause his parents got killed by Deliora and his mentor froze herself? NO.

Bad shit happens to everyone, real life or fiction, using them as a pity farm or as a reason to be an asshole means _**YOU'RE WEAK**_. The OC is a weak shit for not rising above his tragic past to become a better person, but instead wallowing in their pool of pity and shit while lashing out at everyone even if they did nothing wrong.

Now, while some people go through this, why does this make them a Jerk Sue?

The parts that ARE a Jerk Sue, is when the OC is a monstrous asshole to everyone and gets ZERO shit for it. Nobody calls them out, everyone STILL wants to be friends with them, everyone always gives them the benefit of the doubt, and no one is ever annoyed by his behaviour.

If you are going to write an OC with a tragic past, AND have them act like a jerk, AT LEAST write some scenes where they get shit because of their behaviour. Maybe they lash out at someone and the other person ends up crying and they have to drop their pride to reconcile? You know, _**RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT.**_

Useless Wimp: Okay, so this is basically what a lot of people go to when their first story gets called out for having a Mary Sue main character. INSTEAD of building a compelling character with flaws _and _strengths, they build a character with so many fucking weaknesses that cannot do it themselves.

You don't want to get called out for having a Mary Sue? I know! Make a character that's exactly the opposite of that! Well guess what, you just made your Mary Sue into ANOTHER Mary Sue - also called the **Victim Sue. **

Basically, the OC can't do shit, is weak as shit, gets beat up at everything, cries at everything, has no defining characteristics and their sole purpose is to farm pity.

Don't fucking jump to extremes just because your first draft isn't good. Follow through with this OC guide and build a character with flaws and strengths. Understand why the OC has flaws and strengths and don't just randomly add strengths or flaws like some sort of scale. Characters is not a numbers game; you have to piece everything together like a puzzle. If you add more pieces, you will have to change things up, so the end result doesn't look like a jumbled fucking mess.

**Conclusion:** Anyways, I've said my piece, and hopefully beyond all the ranty shit taking most of this chapter, you still managed to get the information and now have a good understanding of how to make an OC's personality.

All in all, build the foundations of your OC's, then figure out why the act a certain why, then figure out why they continue to act. Why do they not give up? Why do they not just kill themselves despite the horrible past?

Figure out EVERYTHING about your character. Hell, you should know the character as well as you know yourself.

As always, see ya cunts :)

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**.**

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**Chapter 5 Done! Next Chapter: Example OCS' Character Data Sheets **

**Jesus Christ, the sheer length of this chapter is absolutely insane. Here's me expecting the chapter to be about 5,000 words long - INCLUDING the OC examples. Damn. **

**This chapter is getting too freaking long so the OC examples are going to be in the next chapter. Hopefully the examples themselves won't end as some 13,000 words monstrosity. **

**Also, if you haven't heard me before, Fuck Harems :)**

…

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**[The Noble World]**

**[The Nothing Dragon Slayer's Misadventures in Fairy Tail]**

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**Minipa, out!**


	6. CH6 - Example OC Personalities

**Chapter 6 - Example OC Personalities**

**Alright! This is technically part two of personalities, but part one got so unbelievably long it's insane - seriously 14,000+ words, how the fuck did I ramble on for that long?**

**So, for this chapter, I will be focusing on the two example OC's used in the previous chapter. Namely, edgy McNinja and the somewhat-bubbly smart girl.**

**Edit: discord sever up at ****http(s:/)/****discord.(gg)/EPp7EU**

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**Guest: Using a Katana, despite being a cliché, is not inherently bad. My dislike of that mainly comes from the usage in Mary Sue OC's. It's easy to hate on particular tropes because a lot of it is often paired with bad writing, such as Mary Sue characters or in stories with inconsistent plot.**

**It all depends on how they get the katana and whether or not if it is a main part of their character. Ex. Erza using a katana would be more than reasonable because she fights with sword magic. Despite my ranting about the usage of swords in general, just use whatever you feel works for your story. If you feel like using a katana enhances your character, go for it.**

* * *

**Character Data Sheet - Male OC: **Alright, there's no need to introduce what a CDS is because I mentioned it last chapter. However, I _**am **_going to assume all of you reading this chapter know what it is already. If you have forgotten, take a look at the beginning-ish of the previous chapter.

Okay, before I begin with the name, I just want to say that ALL of you _**should **_have a CDS for every main character you have. By main character, I don't mean the guy that's going to win all the battles against the 'final' villain. What I mean by this, is the character(s) that are going to undergo development whether it is through their magic, and/or **ESPECIALLY **through their personality.

You should have one for your main OC at the VERY minimum. Even if you do this, this is like getting a 50% on a final exam. Sure, you passed; however, it is _nothing_ to brag about. If you are thinking of focusing on 3 characters, then have _3 _CDS. Doing that is like getting an 80%. It's a solid B, nothing impressive but there's a solid foundation.

**Note: **I will be putting the actual CDS contents in bold; any extra notes regarding it will not be in bold.

**OC Name:**** Trystane Aerus (Ay-rus) **\- This name doesn't have any significant meaning to his character or capabilities. I wouldn't recommend going on google and searching through thousands of names with specific meanings because that's simply a waste of time.

**Intermission:** My mouth is left agape for eons just reading stories where people go on google translate for their OC's Japanese names. People naming their OC's meaning ice, winter, fire, autumn, or whatever bullshit then doing the same for all attack moves. I'm not sure whether to cringe or be confused by this. I basically feel the same with this as when I see people write an opening theme at the beginning of every chapter - **derp.**

Remember, you don't need to use some generic bland name like Michael or Ryan or the **GOD-FORSAKEN KAI/RYU/KAITO**. Think of something memorable and fitting. There's no need to go overboard on the Fantasy name generator and call the OC Vitruvian Roggoth of the 8th demon family or some bullshit like that.

**Family Relations****: Trystane Aerus, son of Victor Aerus and Amelia Aerus (previously Amelia Myril), and brother of Alessia Aerus and Lyron Aerus. **\- These are his birth family members; although not mentioned in the backstory chapter, I'm going to make it so his mom and siblings were able to escape to other countries while he and his father were caught and got stuck. His father, Victor, will be his mentor that eventually led to Trystane's escape. Victor will _still_ be **alive** once he leaves.

**Note: **I don't think dead parent backstories are inherently bad (after all, I used them myself in my own FT story); however, it is important to differentiate the dead parents trope from the common method many people like to use - the dead parents - village completely destroyed - found by dragon.

_I DO NOT CONDONE THE USAGE OF THAT BACKSTORY, __**AT ALL.**_

**Note 2: **In this particular family history however, **none **of the family members are dead. They are simply scattered.

**Character Description: **This subsection will be taken from the traits made from chapter one for _CONTINUITY, YAY!_

**Hair Colour: Black. **

**Eye Colour: Blue.**

**Height (Full Grown): 184cm.**

**Face Shape: Sharp chin but rounded jaw. Small, pointed nose with a small forehead. Unnoticeable cheek bones and a relatively teen-like face.**

**Common Clothing: Mostly black clothing: trousers, boots, brown belt, knee-length coat when outside. He would wear something akin to a tank top and shorts when in his house.**

**Body Type: Mesomorph - Similar to Natsu and Gray but, built for dexterity, maneuverability, and control **\- he won't be overly fast or be speed-based like a million other SI's and OC's.

**Flaws: Trystane, due to his upbringing as the 'oldest' boy of people his age, he is stubborn and condescending, often dismissing other people's opinions. Not only that, but he is anti-social, pessimistic in general, and have very little patience for people making mistakes. He will often overlook genuine suggestions due to pride and ego. Even if someone were to point things out to him, he will deny the point's soundness until later on, sometimes not changing his mind. **

**Trystane has high expectations of himself and others. Often times, if he doesn't succeed on the first try, it will quickly anger him. If others don't succeed on the first try with something **_**he **_**believes to be easy, then he would be unlikely to give them another chance, often creating conflict through this act.**

**Note:** You don't need to put _why _he has those flaws in this section. I will be expanding on his flaws through his motivation section; it is also where I will be talking more about his backstory.

**Strengths: Trystane's high standard for himself makes him a very reliable, honourable, punctual, and thorough. Which means, despite his attitude, he can be expected to do things right the first time, and on time. Despite getting angry quick, he is VERY persistent. If he means to succeed in something, he will not stop until he does it, often going above and beyond what is expected of him to do so.**

**Trystane doesn't like dealing with people, making him assertive to the point of aggressive. When he has to negotiate, he does it in ways that will minimize the amount of talking he has to do, even if he will come off as a hardass/asshole.**

**Note:** Also, for those of you that are still wondering, the flaws/strength here are only for his character. The weaknesses and strengths of his magic/fighting style would normally be put after the character data sheets. However, I will be doing a separate, and hopefully short, chapter on how they would fight and use their magic. I will also include what _could _counter them as well.

**Quirks: Thinks of himself as a connoisseur of fashion. Despite his wardrobe mostly composing of black attire, he has a comprehensive knowledge on different materials and fabrics that would make the black look the 'best.' He also takes very good care of his clothing, whether if it's cleaning them regularly, shining his shoes, or researching on the best detergent. On top of this, he is also very peculiar on the way he styles his hair.**

**One of his things that he does when trying to alleviate stress or find peace in general, is to sip tea slowly while sitting by himself in a corner. Trystane has found that doing this calms him. To go one step further, Trystane sometimes sits in the rain, under cover, and sips tea. The rhythmic sound of rain and herbal tea calms the nerves, he finds.**

**Despite being cold and easy to anger, one of the few times he will actively talk passionately is when he meets another person with great knowledge on fashion. If he **_**fervently **_**disagrees with it however, his **_**vengeful **_**side will break through the usually cold exterior.**

**Off-Time: Similar to the quirks, Trystane enjoys shopping for new clothing - especially the dark-coloured sections. **

**However, when he is not doing something related to fashion or sipping tea to alleviate stress, he can usually be found reading by himself in the library. He would have a handy cup of tea with him of course. Sometimes he would read stories that he finds interesting, although other times, he will be reading books on making himself stronger. **

**Due to his interest with tea, he has a small green house area where he grows his own tea leaves. He experiments with ones he finds in other countries during his missions and tries to grow them in different ways to change the flavour. Once it is grown, he mixes and matches all the ones he has to create different types of tea. **

Remember, the character doesn't need a million things to do in their off time. You could have the things the OC does change over time. To reiterate, I recommend three at most for any given time.

**Goal: To find his scattered family; he knows they are all likely alive. He doesn't know where any of them are except for his father, who he's sure is still in Seven. That is his endgame goal. **

**For some local goals, he could be getting stronger so he can gain the strength he needs to bust his father out for example.**

**For side goals, he could be doing something as mundane as getting a new outfit. It could be magical in nature, or just simply something that is less common.**

**Note: **I won't list more than these goals here because really, the only thing you should have here is the endgame goal and the various local goals they will need to do to _attain _that endgame goal. Goals that are arc-specific, such as defeating Phantom Lord, should be put in the arc building notes instead of the CSM. The list of local goals doesn't need to happen in certain arcs. They can be juggled around until they find a more fitting place.

**Motivation: FOR HIS NAKA-No. Okay maybe a little.**

**Jokes aside, his motivation for his goal is relatively simple. His family escaped at a young age, leaving him and his father (mentor) behind. He ends up being the strongest of a group of kids that eventually all split up or is forced to join rival gangs. With his and his father's strength, he manages to escape the place and promises that he will come back for him. He hates that his friends weren't strong like him - developing into his high standards of himself and others. He also hates himself for not being even stronger to make up for his friends' weakness.**

**Trystane remembers the times he had with his family, even if they were short. When he does escape, he desires the comradery and familial love he felt back then. Despite joining Fairy Tail, he remains cold despite still caring for the members out of honour and principle - at least in the beginning. He will never truly let go of his old family until he either finds them or finds peace with them being gone. **

**In short, he misses his family, wants to be stronger to bust his dad out as well as because he and his friends weren't strong enough before. Trystane wants to find his mother, sister, and brother because he remembers them as a kid and will also have a part of him taken away until he finds what happens to them - whether they are dead or alive. **

**Likes: Fashion, clothing, making tea, drinking tea, secluding himself in relatively peaceful situations, his family, his friends, the night because it is peaceful, rain, honourable people, people who are of few words.**

**Dislikes: Overbearing people, overfriendly people, bubbly people, incompetent people, too much sun, cold tea, assholes, bright clothing, escort missions, people who abuse their power.**

**Interactions: **Okay, just from his personality, I think everyone would already have a decent idea on how he would interact with people. I'm thinking cold, few words, prone to seething anger when forced to interact with people - especially those that are 'incompetent,' straight to the point, and assertive to the point of aggressive.

**Friends: Considering his honourable side and his high standards, he would likely be willing to help them, although discreetly to someone he normally cannot 'stand.' In fact, I would imagine him being a Tsundere and acting like a combination of Todoroki and Bakugo from BNHA. If one of his friends were to be cold in a place where Trystane doesn't think is cold, he would likely irritatingly hold out a blanket without looking at the person, insulting them all the while.**

**Best Friends: While with friends, Trystane would help them out but not openly admit he cares for them; he would likely be willing to do just that with someone he considers his best friend. The soft side that is shown through his actions but not on the surface will come out. His best friend is likely the only person he would drop his cold and impatient exterior for. If the best friend asks for help, he would like reply with 'I'll be there,' with finality and simply show up without even asking for what it was. This will be especially true if the best friend has helped him in the past.**

**Acquaintances: Depending on the person, Trystane will likely not outwardly show any care towards them. If they are in trouble, he would probably just tell the person to suck it up, regardless of their statue (ex. Big strong man or a young child). If he met someone weaker than he was, and wanted to help them, he would likely subtly give them the tools to help themselves as opposed to doing something **_**for them. **_**Unless the people he considers acquaintances are in imminent danger, he won't act out, preferring for others to solve their own problems unless they might get killed/hurt badly otherwise.**

**Strangers: Trystane is rather weary of strangers, especially due to the state of his birth country. He remains guarded even to those that are kind/professional to him. When he talks to strangers, he won't show any of his emotion or opinion at first glance. However, if the stranger is one of the people he dislikes, he will be prone to cold anger. By cold anger, I mean hardened/bloodshot glares and lowered voice opposed to straight out screaming. When he has to talk to someone such as a shopkeeper, he would be quick and straight forward. He would ask for an item, asks how much it is, pay, then leave without another word.**

**Figures of Authority: **Trystane won't be the type to go and say shit like 'your position means nothing to me.' However, he will not go out of his way to respect them either. If he were to meet a Rune Knight Captain, he would likely address the captain as 'Rune Knight,' or 'you.' He will not antagonize those in authority, but he will stand to let those people look down on him either.

**Nobility: Nobility is something that heavily depends on one thing: whether or not the person in power abuses their power. Considering Trystane's old country was filled with gang leaders and warlords that would take advantage of the weak, he will not take lightly to those that do the same to him in Fiore. If Trystane has actually done something against the rules, and the leading noble explains it to him in a professional manner, then Trystane would likely speak back in a neutral manner, doing nothing to particularly disrespect the noble - and even seeking to rectify his mistake, in a straight-forward, business-like manner of course.**

**However, if the noble speaks condescendingly or simply causes trouble because he doesn't like how Trystane isn't kissing his ass like all his other subjects, then Trystane will likely use force to either intimidate or leave if he is not required to be present. **

**Ex. If he is on a mission request by the same noble. Trystane will likely shut a condescending noble up and say 'let me do my job, give me my money, and we won't have any problems.' If any more shit starts, then Trystane will likely just drop the mission then and there if it's not especially inconvenient for him to do so.**

**Seniority: Trystane wouldn't care to change how they act around a person simply because they have been doing something longer than they have - at least in terms of respect. However, Trystane might be more likely to trust them with certain tasks as seniority points to more experience, meaning that they will be more competent than someone that does not have seniority over him.**

**Regardless, Trystane will not offer the senior any extra courtesies above trusting the level of skill that their 'seniority' represents.**

**Elderly: Just like seniority, he wouldn't treat them differently. He would go for the cold/neutral exterior until he knows more about them. Even then, he wouldn't respect the elderly any more than someone younger than him just because they lived longer than him.**

**Government: The government is a sore spot for him. Often times, his methods and how he treats certain clients could earn him 'beef' with the council or local governments. He would, in politer words, tell the government to fuck off and leave him to his work. Trystane would not care for how he made the client felt and wouldn't bother justifying his actions above a few words.**

**Even if the government, such as the Magic Council, gives him praise, he wouldn't simply wave it off as irrelevant.**

**Dark Mages and Enemies: Due to how he fights, Trystane will not be the type to exchange pleasantries with his enemies. He wouldn't even bother talking to them. There would likely be very few words, if any, between he and his enemies, as he would move to take them out as targets, then moving on.**

**However, against people who he genuinely shows disdain, he would let his seething anger come to the surface. Trystane is not the type to torture or make his enemies suffer; he would still be as efficient as he was, except his methods would be more brutal. **

**Ex. He might kill a dark mage by slitting his throat normally, but if he is **_**angry**_**, he might go for disembowelment or burning.**

Anyways, Trystane sounds like a less emotional version of Sasuke now that I think about it. Although the more mundane things humanize him, especially if his thoughts about people and their relationship opens up. Now, normally I would put the magic specifications, spell names, weaknesses, and fighting style here. Instead, I will be putting the magic specifications in another chapter.

It will expand on the stuff I have mentioned in Chapter two, except it will be focused on how Trystane would use his magic, not just the mechanics of it. His combat style, weaponry, attack names, will all be there.

**Character Data Sheet - Female OC: **Alright, that's it for the male OC! Now it's time for the much more fun and bubblier female OC! Personally, I think Trystane is an edgelord anyway and will never consider him for a story :)

**OC Name:**** Mio Vandelarah - **again, nothing too meaningful. I imagined the character in my head and felt like Mio was rather fitting for a girl like her.

**Note: **For female names, do try to stay away from Akemi, Akimi, Fuyu, and basically Japanese names meaning winter, love, beauty, other generic shit, aite?

**Family Relations****: Mio Vandelarah, daughter of Stephan Vandelarah and Mariyah Vandelarah. Father is deceased due to terminal illness; her mother is a retired Fairy Tail mage that runs a rather successful magic shop. Mio is an only child. Her father also comes from a long line of scholars/researchers, many making magical break throughs in history.**

**Note:** I mentioned her family history with scholars, but I won't be putting the specifics in the character data sheet. If your OC has a family history that is important to the plot, I would put it in the world building section after the CDS or before the magic specification section.

**Note 2:** I know I said in Chapter 4 that her parents are 'probably' still alive, but I decided to add in a death to allow her character a bit of emotional maturity from pain and such.

**Character Description:** Thankfully, I have already gone through a lot of the notes in the male example OC, so this part shouldn't be as long.

**Hair Colour: Cyan.**

**Eye Colour: Green.**

**Height (Full Grown): 165cm.**

**Face Shape: Rounded chin and jaw, flat and slightly-wide nose, large eyes, full lips, and a slightly-large forehead.**

**Common Clothing: Large, circular glasses capable of zooming in and scanning, a hiker's backpack carrying a large variety of tools, and often times a jacket filled to the brim with pockets. The pants she wears is not set and she changes pairs regularly - **Compared to Trystane, Mio's wardrobe is more based on function rather than aesthetics.

**Body Type: Mesomorph - Hiker's body from all the expeditions she goes on; she has C-cup breasts and very-muscular legs in comparison to the rest of her body.**

**Flaws: Mio often gets tunnel vision when she focuses in on something, losing track of her surroundings. This could cause her to trip, bump into things, or even get lost accidentally. While usually non-confrontational, she is very stubborn when it comes to being 'right.' She would often argue with pure facts and logic (like Ben Shapiro), resulting in her angering the other side even if she had a better point to make. **

**Sometimes, in her expeditions, she forgets to take care of personal hygiene such as showering or brushing her teeth daily. This can cause a disturbance to some of the other Fairy Tail members when she goes into the guild hall. **

**She is very fanatic about efficiency and an 'ideal' way to do things. While not intimidating like Erza, she would often annoy the shit out of others who is doing something that she believes is **_**not **_**the ideal way to go upon doing something. **

**Ex. Putting dishes away one by one instead of arranging them in stacks before putting them away.**

**Strengths: While seemingly clumsy, Mio is by no means, a klutz. When she is focused on something, she has a hand as steady as a surgeon and is completely aware of the slightest detail in her focus. However, everything outside is another story. **

**Due to the number of items she carries and the knowledge she has, she is an absolute boon to anyone on a mission involving travelling. Survival skills, herbology, navigation on stars, she knows them all. As a mage, she is basically the flex pick of flex picks and the support of supports. Her magic and her knowledge fits so well together she makes everyone's lives easier on an extended mission. **

**Mio is intelligent and diligent, making her ideal for organizing and figuring out new systems. She is far quicker at others to solve problems and can easily keep track of numbers.**

**Ex. Mio can half (or just decrease) the time needed to rebuild the guildhall while lowering the budget just based on her ability to delegate, calculate and do finances.**

**Quirks: Goes outside regularly on expeditions to different lands, gathering new samples of wildlife, dirt, and everything in between. Sometimes, she is caught wearing the same jacket for weeks at an end, and it is up to others to make her clean it.**

**Is very excited about many things, often going into over-exaggerated fits of giddiness that makes everyone around her sweat-drop.**

**Can often be seen with a chemistry set in the guild, or in her personal lab at her house. She tests different materials and their reactions to magic; sometimes going as far to enter 'mad scientist mode' where she will go off about different types of sciences, often making everyone around her leave in awkwardness.**

**Off-Time: Library, library, library. When she isn't out on her expeditions or doing science, she is READING. For this, I will put reading about sciences in her off-time because this is something she genuinely enjoys.**

**Unlike Trystane, she won't be a fashion/tea connoisseur because she spends just about every waking moment of her life going on expeditions, doing science, practicing enchantment magic, and experimenting. Considering her love for al these things, you **_**could **_**consider it her off-time because her definition of play/work is basically the same set of things. **

**Goal: A loose endgame goal; she wishes to find the science behind how magic works and how people are able to cast it. However, a continuous goal she always has is to constantly learn more and more about everything.**

**Local goals could be specific things that Mio tries to learn, or even just complete projects/experiments she is working on at the time.**

Compared to Trystane, she doesn't have some sort of life-long motivation to push herself to the limits. She has grown up relatively sheltered and with a nice family despite her father passing away.

**Motivation: Mio's motivation to learn her magic, go on expeditions, etc. is a genuine passion for what she does. She loves finding out mysterious and unlike many people, who are afraid of the unknown, she embraces it. To her, there is nothing more gratifying than a problem solved. **

**Considering her backstory, her passion of knowledge, books, and science in general was a gradual development. As a child, she was always an explorer, often choosing to go into the wilderness by herself opposed to hanging out with other children. Of course, she's not bullied or anything, everyone is still willing to be friends with her, it's just that she prefers to go on her business. If she meets someone else willing to go the same lengths as her, they would probably become best friends RIGHT away.**

Hey look! A motivation that doesn't involve tragedy or righting the wrongs of the world! Mio loves what she does, wouldn't mind doing it until she dies, and the love for the game is what keeps her playing! Damn, maybe I should put a character like this in my own stories, would definitely be a refresher amidst the huge groups of edgelords.

**Likes: Knowledge, efficiency, numbers, calculating, science, experiments, untracked lands, expeditions, Fairy Tail, her friends, her family, things that are built for function. **

**Dislikes: Finding out something just to realize that it was an unimportant detail, wasting time and materials, over-priced items, people interrupting her work, anyone who disrespects knowledge (books included), when the systems she placed isn't being utilized, when things are out of order.**

**Interactions:**

**Friends: **For this part, I will assume that these are people Mio has known for awhile now but does not necessarily have the same interests as her.

**Mio is generally happy and optimistic, although just like other people, she has her own buttons. When interacting with her friends, such as Lucy (I can see them getting along), she'll be very kind and enthusiastic. She would likely try to talk to Lucy or other friends about the various type of sciences, and can likely get very overbearing, especially for people that she is closer with. **

**She gets very passionate about what she does and can sometimes go on for hours with her friends that might not necessarily be **_**that **_**willing to listen. **

**Best Friends: **Considering this is the 'best' friend category, I will be assuming that the person she is best friends with will have the same or similar interests as her.

**Mio will probably spend on her time doing expeditions with her best friend. Considering they have the same of similar interests, they can likely talk about various subjects (changing over the course of the conversation of course), for hours and hours. This might even annoy the people around them considering they might get rather **_**loud **_**in their enthusiasm. **

**Of course, even if they are not doing something, they are both interested in, they would more than likely get together to do something only one of them is interested in. If Mio's best friend were to like fishing, then Mio would be happy to go with them.**

**Acquaintances: With people she had known for a short while, she would keep her 'passionate' tendencies out of the conversation, instead opting for cute, kind, and sweet conversations between the two, often talking about mundane things.**

**However, if she and the acquaintance continue talking, and they hit certain subjects, then it they can quickly move to the friend zone within a conversation.**

**Strangers: Since Mio is relatively sheltered, her reaction will change depending on how 'intimidating' the stranger looks. If Mio was talking to someone who was clean-shaven and nice looking, then she will respond to them a lot better compared to someone who looks like a homeless guy. **

**Other than that, not too much difference than acquaintance. Mio will be kind, cordial, and soft-spoken for the most part.**

**Figures of Authority: Unlike Trystane, Mio would be rather respectful to figures of authority, sometimes even going as far to add extra titles or apologize profusely if she gets one title wrong. If Mio were to be speaking with Hisui, and then found out she was the princess, Mio might bow continuously while apologizing even if she didn't do anything inherently wrong.**

**Nobility: She will react the same to Nobility as Figures of Authority. Only thing is that if the Nobility was someone like a fat disgusting man, it might be difficult for her to hide her disgust.**

**Seniority and Elderly: Compared to Trystane, Mio will be very respectful to the elderly and those senior to her, because that was what her parents taught her. She won't be as fanatical as when she meets figures of authority or nobility, but she will still treat elders/seniors different than her peers.**

**Government: For the government, Mio would be an ideal citizen in their eyes. She will basically never break ANY rules, no destruction on missions, and she would be more than well-versed in knowing the ins and outs of the legal system.**

**I would even wager she was capable of out-lawyer-ing the Magic Council officials, especially if their shit interferes with her own plans.**

**Conclusion: **Anyways, these are the examples of CDS for two OC's. I would suggest making AT LEAST this for your main characters. If you make one for every character you plan on having a role for, it will make all the scenes that much more believable.

Also, the CDS is not the full character biography page. Normally, I would put the Character Data sheet, then the Magic Specifications, the combat style, then some extended backstory information.

It's good to make CDS because when you think of your characters reacting in different situations, you can compare it to what the character is supposed to be like, keeping them **IN **character.

See y'all next time ya smelly gonads!

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**Chapter 6 Done! Next Chapter: Power Scaling**

**Make sure you guys check out my other stories!**

**Read my profile and join my Trope discussion forums!**

**[ROTLB: The Birth of the Light Bringer]**

**[ROTLB: Light of Fairies]**

**[Chef Ramsay]**

**[A God's Redemption]**

**[A Hero's Becoming]**

**[The Noble World]**

**[The Nothing Dragon Slayer's Misadventures in Fairy Tail]**

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**[Minipa's Trope Discussion and How to not Suck Shit at Writing - BNHA]**

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**Minipa, out!**


	7. CH7 - Power Scaling

**Chapter 7 - Power Scaling**

**Finally! I've been wanting to write the Power Scaling chapter for awhile now! One of the weirdest things for authors to tackle, is how their OC's stand up to other characters. Not only that, how do they compare their feats together? **

**Power Scaling is fucked in actual anime/manga anyway (like DBS especially), but that isn't an excuse to do it in your own story! Honestly, writing without a plan is what causes plot inconsistencies, same with POWER inconsistencies. If you don't have a page of notes handy to compare the power of various characters in an arc, or even afterwards, chances are, there will be some mistakes made in power scaling.**

**You know how there's people who have OC's beat villains capable of destroying cities, but then get their asses kicked by Natsu or some shit? Don't be like those people!**

**Edit: Discord server is up! ****http(s:/)/discord.(gg)/EPp7EU**

…

**Okay, so normally I would pm review replies to people with accounts, but this is honestly such a great question that I ought to answer it in the chapter so everyone who is asking it will know (at least from my perspective).**

**Review from LordAmon52: Looking through the contents of this guide. I can't help but wonder why this masterpiece only have 6 favorites and 11 followers while [insert your elements here] DS stories where it's Natsu or a fatalist wimp with [insert your elements here] get more 'approval' with like 40 or 50 favorites & followers? Perhaps the one mystery of FT fandom that will never be solved no matter how long time has been passed.**

**Review Reply: This is because of the audience, or the common interests of the majority users on Fanfiction. Most of the people on this website read the stories for mindless entertainment or to get through their otherwise boring lives (such as at work or during lectures - which they really SHOULDN'T be doing). Very few people have the time and effort to actually read stories on Fanfiction critically, where they look at the plot or actually try to tell a compelling story or to have a relatable/reasonable character. Not only that, some of the people that read it just for mindless entertainment are probably tired from a day's work or lack or sleep when they read it, meaning they can easily skip through grammar errors while only having enough focus to look at tense scenes filled with dramatic sensationalism (such as heroic Nakama Speeches). They will have nowhere enough energy or be willing to put anywhere enough effort to be able to look at the pieces of plot that build up the scenes and ask themselves if its reasonable.**

**Anyways TLDR: People are lazy, reading Fanfiction to pass time, don't think critically on stories, and that's the truth for good majority of the users. This is why my Madara story (which I have done no world building or put any real thought in) is tens of times more popular than my original stories or my Trope Discussions. People who think critically about stories tend to not read Fanfiction, causing the disparity. **

**Raven Claw: Indeed, you can have different eye colours from the what is considered normal in our own reality. In Fairy Tail, eye colours such as red, orange, purple, or other IS the reality. Having orange eyes is similar to having green eyes in our world. The biggest things is always heterochromia, having dual coloured eyes when very few or none of the characters have it makes it a sue trait.**

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**Introduction:** Okay, for power scaling, I am mainly focusing on _**Power**_, and _**Power alone.**_ Which means people who have less magic/power but have some sort of unorthodox assassin magic allowing them to kill Gildarts will NOT be discussed here. This chapter is going to focus on feats of strength and destructive capability. I will then expand a little bit on my personal ranking system and how the example OC's would stack up.

**REMEMBER: THIS IS ONLY STRENGTH AND DESTRUCTIVE POWER. **

**Note: **I will be talking about combat and fighting styles in the next chapter.

**Ranking: **I'm not going to be revealing the spoilers for the characters of my own story, but I will be showing you how I rank canon characters and why. After that, I will explain where you can put OC's based on the feats, they have the accomplished.

**Note:** This will be focused on the power/strength they can RELIABLY use. As in, regardless to the damage to their body, they are able to call on this power at ANY given time. Which means, Natsu going dragon force with the Etherion Lacrima or Jellal's bullshit golden fire will NOT be counted.

**Seriously, random power ups after everyone supposedly stronger than Natsu getting ass-kicked is asspull within asspulls.**

Anyways, this is a power scaling list that will use the VS Battles Tiering system as comparison, as well as having an estimated power output using the Magic Council MPF units (in proportion).

This is NOT correlated with the mage rankings in the Manga or Anime. This is simply how much destruction they can cause with their most powerful attack (one they can reliably use). Instead of ranking in a who-will-defeat-who contest, the power scaling tier list will be based on magical pressure and destructive potential.

**We can assume that someone with double the magical pressure will be roughly twice as physically strong and fast. **

Each of the tiers connect with each other, meaning there can be instances where someone from the lower tier could only be marginally weaker than someone on the higher tier. However, the gap in destructive potential are roughly ranked in multipliers of 5. Meaning, an average D-ranked mage will have 5 times greater destructive potential and will likely be able to defeat 5 average E-ranked mages as well.

This would mean the weakest E-ranked would be roughly 25 times weaker than the strongest D-ranked in terms of destructive force. While it is true that the final tier would have destructive potential millions of times greater than the first tier, I believe this still fits as islands **ARE** millions of times greater the small holes in walls.

**Note: **Again, this is assuming none of the weaker mages have some sort of counter dark assassin bullshit that allows them to kill people hundreds of times stronger than them.

While it is true, the final tier would have destructive potential millions of times greater than the first tier. I believe this fits as islands ARE millions of times greater the small holes in walls.

For the example members (canon characters included, not just the OC's) , they will be listed in order from weakest to greatest in what I think their destructive potential lies.

**Magical Output:** This is an estimated range of power that the members would be able to produce using the Magic Council's standards. This is done by measuring how much magical pressure the MPF measures from the mage if they were to release their maximum output from a distance of 1 meter. This is **usually** proportional with destructive force.

**Destructive Potential:** If the mages were to fire their strongest attack, the amount of destructive they cause would determine this particular rank. Erza would rank in B or A as she is more combat based instead of destruction based. With this same scale, Natsu would rank higher than Erza despite her being able to defeat him in 1v1 combat.

Extra example: Hibiki from Blue Pegasus would rank at high E or low D because of how little destruction he could cause with his archive magic.

**Note: **Only _**ONE**_ attack is used. Someone using the same spell 10000 times to destroy a building will not be ranked as a building-level character.

**Fodder Tier:** Alright, we are going to begin from the lowest of the lower then make our way up. Tier 1, or the unofficial E-ranked mages, will be basically the fodder tier. The people in this tier are completely unranked in the guild or Magic Council and can be taken down with a single punch from any of the main cast.

It is questionable as to whether or not if these people can actually use magic, as their battle potential is far too low. Not only that, their latent magical pressure would be hard pressed to exceed even ten.

Example Members:

**Phantom Lord Grunts**

**Useless Wimp OCs**

**Oracion Seis Puppet Guild Grunts**

**Magical Output: 10**

Some mages in this category may not even be able to use magic, they are simply the fodder soldiers that follow people capable of using magic. Either that, of they are simply extremely untalented in magic.

**Destructive Potential: 10-B to 10-A**

The 'mages' in this rank are so weak that they are comparable to normal humans. The ones that could use magic are so amateur that their fighting potential will equal an athlete incapable of magic. These are the people you would see frozen in the background in the anime, or the Victim Sue OC's that authors make to try and avoid get called out for being a Mary Sue.

In fact, these mages are so weak that a regular civilian might have a chance in beating them.

**High Fodder/D-Rank:** Tier 2, or the D-ranked mages, are also included in the fodder group. However, the mages in this rank can all use magic. They are all novices at the art, and they will have low combat stats all around. In fact, it wouldn't be difficult for one of them to be knocked out by someone who couldn't use magic.

Example Members:

**Unnamed Fairy Tail Mages**

**Upper Level Phantom Lord Grunts**

**Unnamed Lullaby lower level Grunts**

**Hibiki from Blue Pegasus**

**Lucy Heartfilia - No spirits used, canon start**

**Magical Output: 25. **

Most of the mages in this rank are unable to generate an output greater than 25.

**Destructive Potential: 10-A to 9-C**

This is the weakest of tiers in which all members are confirmed of using magic. Their magical blasts would be considered so weak that most would not be able to injure a civilian severely. The strongest that would still be considered in this tier will be able to cause low level destructions to weaker structures.

Ex. A 30cm-wide hole in wood.

Their destructive potential is equal to a regular strongman incapable of using magic (a strongman in our world). These mages are capable of fatally injuring civilians or killing them if they hit weak spots in one blow.

**C-Ranked Mages: **Tier 3, or C ranked mages, are considered weak compared to full fledged mages of known guilds (A Rank). All of these mages are capable of using magic and can, on average, dispatch 5 D-Ranked mages by themselves.

Ex. The weakest C-ranked mages can beat 5 of the weakest D-ranked mages without any special conditions or weird ass magic.

This does NOT mean they have 5 times the magic, but rather their destructive capacity is 5 or more times greater. Also, magical pressure is **NOT** directly proportional to destructive potential. The ranks assume that the mages control will also increase, granting greater effect with lesser amounts of magic. However, the weakest C-ranked mage is only slightly stronger than the strongest D-ranked mage.

Example Members:

**Toby from Lamia Scale**

**Jenny from Blue Pegasus**

**Kagayama from Eisenwald **

**Wakaba Mine**

**Levy McGarden - Canon start**

**Bora of Prominence in the First episode**

**Macao Conbolt**

**Regular Mages from Phantom Lord**

**Lucy Heartfilia - With spirits in early canon**

**Magical Output: 25-100**

The mages in this rank are somewhat competent, but lack experience. They are capable of rudimentary blast spells in their school of magic and are capable of being a threat to higher-ranked mages in numbers.

**Destructive Potential: 9-C to 9-B**

The strongest blast these mages could generate would be able to blast a hole through a regular wall, one large enough for them to walk through. These mages are capable of killing civilians or weaker mages with a single blow.

**B-Ranked Mages: **Tier 4, or B-ranked mages, are your average guild mages in the sense they are not unnamed mages.

Example Members:

**Loki - Canon start**

**Cana Alberona - Canon start**

**Gray Fullbuster - Canon start **

**Erza Scarlet - Canon start **

**Gajeel Redfox - Canon start**

**Magical Output: 50-300**

This tier is filled with more experienced mages. These people may have things to learn or still have ways to improve, however, they are considered strong in the Magic Council's standards.

People like Erza Scarlet have higher magical outputs, but in canon start, she did not have more destructive armors and abilities such as the one that allowed her to use **Grand Chariot** or when she cut a meteor in half.

**Destructive Potential: 9-B - 9-A**

Those in this tier are capable of destroying a small house in a single spell. The house would be estimated around 5m tall, 5m wide, and 5m long. The spell might not completely disintegrate the house, but it will reduce it to ruins.

**Note:** For the most part, I believe B-Rank would be where most dragon slayer OC's would be. This is because they will have similar destructive capability as Gajeel or Gray (at least that's how DSOC authors normally write them). You might have notice that Natsu is not on this list. The reason for that, is because Natsu's element is Fire. Which means, even if he has similar magic to the others on B-rank, his spells can proportionally do **FAR** more destruction.

**A-Rank Mages:** Tier 5, or A-ranked mages, are the stronger mages inside a guild. Many are S-class mages in the guild's eyes. Many of these mages would be strong enough to complete S-class quests and they would often have a reputation across Fiore.

Example Members:

**Erigor from Eisenwald**

**Rusty Rose from Grimoire Heart**

**Natsu Dragneel - canon start**

**Zancrow from Grimoire Heart**

**Lucy Heartfilia - Aquarius spirit**

**Mirajane Strauss - Satan Soul First Form**

**Laxus Dreyar - Pre time skip**

**Magical Output: 200-800**

Many mages in this tier are S-class mages. However, they won't be the strongest of the S-class. The mages here are often lower tier S-class mages and have just received that rank from their respective guilds.

**Destructive Potential: 9A - 8B**

The people in this category can destroy multiple buildings in a single spell. They will also be able to destroy a large building such as the Fairy Tail guild hall. Erigor's Emera Baram would be capable of destroying a line of houses.

Natsu is ranked higher than the other Fairy Tail mages is simply because he has Fire magic, he can cause much greater destruction with one spell than the other can.

Despite Laxus's greater magical potential and his ability to use Fairy Law, he will be ranked down here as he has not shown any greater destructive abilities until the Alvarez Arc.

**S-Ranked Mages:** Tier 6, or S-ranked mages, are almost completely filled with mages that are S-class or above. These mages are often the most powerful within a certain guild or are the Guildmaster themselves.

Many of the wizard saints will reside in this rank.

Example Members:

**Natsu Dragneel - Dragon Force pre-Timeskip**

**Jiemma from Sabertooth**

**Natsu Dragneel - Lightning Flame Dragon**

**Jose Porla**

**Makarov Dreyar**

**Magical Output: 400-2000**

Despite the massive jump in rank, this particular rank will have a jump in destructive potential as well.

**Destructive Potential: 8-A to 7-C**

Characters in this tier are capable of destroying small towns in a single spell.

Ex. Makarov's Titan Form can body slam a quarter of Magnolia.

Ex 2. Natsu's full-powered lightning flame roar could dig a trench through Magnolia.

Magnolia would be considered a large town.

**SS Rank:** The mages in this level are far stronger than most mages around. Mages capable of this much destruction are considered the most powerful of their land or country. The gods of Ishgar would be in this rank.

Example Members:

**Jellal Fernandez - After-Timeskip**

**Warrod Sequen - assuming he can grow a tree into a city to destroy it because he made a large ass branch to transport the Fairy Tail members**

**Gildarts Clive - Pre-Timeskip**

**God Serena**

**Spriggan 12 - not including August or Irene.**

**Laxus Dreyar - Alvarez**

**Magical Output: 1000-9000**

The magic pressure alone of these mages could shake the area around them. They can bring weaker mages to their knees even from far distances simply because of the pressure exerted from this magic.

**Destructive Potential: 7-B to low 7-A**

The individuals in this rank could generate destructive power in which the devastation will have to be measured in kilometers. A single spell from these mages could annihilate could destroy a good portion of a mountain.

Ex. Gildart's full power punch would be able to crumble a small mountain or turn Magnolia into a crater.

**Note:** I didn't put Wolfheim or Draculos Hyberion on the list because they didn't really show great feats of destruction in the manga. Despite being able to restrain or hit God Serena, I'm not going to put them on the list based on that assumption.

**Legendary Rank:** Only the greatest mages of their time in the world can be in this rank. Humans who successfully gained enough power to be in this rank can be counted with one hand. This tier is mainly reserved for legends or even famous creatures of great power.

Example Members:

**August **

**Irene Belserion**

**Grandeeny **

**Metallicana **

**Igneel**

**Belserion the Dragon**

**Magical Output: 6000-20000**

The individuals in this ranking make the current gods of Ishgar look like dummies. Their destructive power are given to the legends in various time frames. Even to the mighty dragons, only a few dozen of them have reached this power.

**Destructive Potential: 7-A to 6-C**

The people in this category, can destroy areas of land tens of kilometers across. Small islands in this category can be wiped off the face of the planet in a single attack.

Alright, the Power Scaling List actually has two more tiers, but those only exist in my story, so I won't be mentioning them here. Now, what is the point of me showing you guys this? The reason why I want to put this here is again, to help you fit your OC's power-wise in comparison to other characters.

In many stories, I have noticed characters defeating someone stronger than Erza, just to lose to let's say, Natsu. Something like this is rather inconsistent in terms of power scaling and shouldn't be done unless you _**SHOW **_that the OC has injuries. Let's say, your OC limped to one place to the other because of broken bones and ended up losing to Wendy or something because they are also about to pass out.

If you are going to use various reasons to have stronger characters lose to weaker characters, _**SHOW DON'T TELL. **_While power scaling can be done differently in stories, it is important to note anything that could cause previously established strong characters to previously established _weak _characters is _**SHOWN.**_ Don't informed-flaw people, don't have the OC saying in dialogue form that they are tired or wounded, have it reflect in their actions!

Look at Laxus being defeated by Natsu for example. Laxus, by all means, should have straight up kicked Natsu's ass. However, there are inferences to Laxus expanding a mass amount of magic doing Fairy Law just to achieve nothing, as well as his magic control slipping due to his state of mind. Not only that, it is said that when Laxus is knocked down by Natsu, he has already made the decision to no longer fight as he basically surrendered.

Of course, if you are planning on doing something similar, make it _**MORE OBVIOUS.**_ Your battle shouldn't spark debates on who should have won. The battle should have most if not all people think: yep, this character is stronger, but I get they are near-death and their defeat by a far weaker character is reasonable.

**Note:** Remember, your readers ARE **NOT** YOU. It is very easy for yourself to figure out from the lack of information because all that lacking information is **ALREADY IN YOUR HEAD.** I cannot stress this enough. If you give out less information thinking less is more, some readers might end up coming to different conclusions about certain battles or from the hints you have dropped. To get by this, have a beta to read it over for you and see if their conclusion is similar or **IS **what you have intended. This is similar to OC's 'suspecting' things about canon because the authors had the foreknowledge of what happens.

Just what is a _reasonable_ number of things they can figure out? What is a reasonable amount of information your _readers_ can figure out? If you have trouble power scaling characters, ask others for your opinions and do as much research as you can. You _**CANNOT **_answer these yourself, because you already know the answer and also have author bias. What you **think **people can figure out will likely be a lot less than in reality. Very few people are as invested into your story as yourself, don't expect someone to be able to figure out all the world building, character building, and story building with the few hints that you yourself thinks is a **bare minimum! **

**TLDR:** If you want your readers to come to certain conclusions, you have to find a way to shove it right in their face without telling them. If they still can't figure it out because they are idiots, then it is what it is.

**Trystane Aerus:** Anyways, now that we have an idea on how to the power scaling ranks and destructive potential works (in my story at least), we can now put the example OC's into the scale.

Now, both Trystane and Mio are in the category of non-destructive magics. Trystane uses shift magic which switches the positions of him and other objects. While this makes him a deadly fighter, he would be hard pressed to escape C-Rank in terms of destructive potential because his magic is **not **inherently destruction-based.

Ex. In my story, Martial magic (using magic to enhance physical abilities) is a magic that _anyone _can learn with ease. The longer someone uses it, and the more magic they have, the better they become.

If Trystane masters martial magic to a high degree, **AND **has magic comparable to S-class mages, then he would be able to destroy concrete walls with a single punch. This would make him an **EXTREMELY **deadly close-ranged fighter.

Of course, while Trystane _**could **_get stronger later in the canon timeline, I'm going to rank him from where I would believe he stands at the start of canon. Which means no house punching, crater creating, or shockwave generating. At the beginning of canon, Trystane should already have a decent level of mastery for his shift magic, martial magic, and possibly weapons magic. However, let's focus on the martial magic for now.

Let's say, Trystane can reliably punch his fist straight through a wall, and if he focuses hard enough, he can perform techniques allowing him to punch holes into walls large enough for him to walk through.

While not enough to put him into B-Rank, this would comfortably place him in **C.**

However, in terms of magic, he would be capable of generating 300-400 magical units, which would put him at** low S-Rank **or** A-Rank** in terms of magic.

You could argue there are other factors influencing his destructive potential, such as him switching a rock his size with a bird that is miles in the air or something, then using the height and gravity to deal more damage. For the sake of this ranking however, I will only be focusing on DIRECT destruction. As in, personal spell, punches, kicks, etc. No domino effects or using other forces for aid.

**Mio Vandelarah**: Since Mio is an enchantment mage, the level of destruction she is capable of causing is heavily dependent on the spell themselves. Consider that Mio is well-versed in many sciences, she could enchant certain substances to produce an explosive yield _far _greater than it is supposed to naturally. While technically using outside forces, I would still rank this as part of her magic because her enchantment magic **requires** some outside source for it to take effect.

Ex. Irene enchanting the air to blast Acnologia with a magic-enhanced wind blast.

To rank characters like Mio, where their destructive capability is limited by the shit I can asspull, it is better to determine these limits BEFORE writing in. **This means no random fucking armours like Erza. **

Let's say the **most **Mio is capable of destroying, is when she uses a fire enchantment combined with an outward air enchantment. These two enchantments working in Tandem would be able to create a burning concussive force equivalent to a large grenade. She would be able to destroy a small house like this in a single blast.

From this, Mio will be **B rank** in terms of destructive potential.

Now, what about her magic? Mio doesn't train as much as Trystane, so she would likely have similar reserve compared to Levy. For the scale, I would place her at 100-200 units, putting her at a comfortable **B rank.**

Of course, all of this would be at canon start. Mio could learn some nuclear enchantment or whatever the fuck that would put her destructive potential straight up to Tier 7. Regardless, just make sure for whatever characters you write, define their limits and new limits (later in the story), before actually writing them.

**Conclusion: **While power scaling isn't something that is completely necessary to build a story, doing it will allow you to keep their feats consistent. Remember, plot holes and inconsistencies is similar to estimating math calculations. The more you do for one equation, or one story, the more prevalent it becomes later on.

Be as aware of your characters as you possibly can: how they interact, how they talk, how they handle stress, etc. Doing all of these will make your story that much better.

Think of it this way; a lot of you guys are in high school/university right? You wouldn't write an essay without deciding the topic and finishing the outline right? The same way you wouldn't write a story before building the character, plot, and the world.

If you answer 'I would,' then I suggest reforming your whole work process.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

See ya, ya crapbaskets.

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**Chapter 7 Done! Next Chapter: Magic and Combat!**

**Make sure you guys check out my other stories!**

**Join the discord server at (/d)iscord.g(g/)EPp7EU!**

**Read my profile and join my Trope discussion forums!**

**[ROTLB: The Birth of the Light Bringer]**

**[ROTLB: Light of Fairies]**

**[Chef Ramsay]**

**[A God's Redemption]**

**[A Hero's Becoming]**

**[The Noble World]**

**[The Nothing Dragon Slayer's Misadventures in Fairy Tail]**

**[Minipa's Trope Discussion and How to not Suck Shit at Writing]**

**[Minipa's Trope Discussion and How to not Suck Shit at Writing - BNHA]**

**Check out my Youtube Channel: Minipa!**

**Minipa, out!**


	8. CH8 - Magic and Fighting Styles Part I

**Chapter 8 - Magic and Fighting Styles Part I**

**Oh boy! I'm going to have lots of fun in magic and fighting styles! **

**No more punching each other in the FISTS (seriously why the fuck do anime do this)! Actual battle tactics, counters, and split-second decisions within battles!**

**Have you guys seen the fights in Fate/Zero? Those are the ones I truly thrive for! Of course, everything is balance. Add in just the right amount of Nakama Power and it can work its magic!**

**Anyways, I was originally going to make this one part, but the word count went above 15,000 and that is too long even for MY tastes. I decided to split it up in two so it doesn't become quite jarring to read.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Introduction:** All right, magic and fighting styles! What I've decided to not get into in the previous chapter will be discussed here! Basically, what I mean by these, are how characters use their magic and combat styles to fight other characters. How the characters think, whether or not if they choose to back off or fight, will all be factored in.

The reason why this is important is because building this part for your OC's will allow your fight scenes to escape the turn-based magic slugfests that anime and manga just **love **showing. You know the shit when two characters punch each other's fists? Basically that. While two characters wailing on each other back and forth without music and lots of grunting make a damned well dramatic scene, you have to be careful where you place this.

Some characters might fight with all-out rushes, where they use multiple spells in quick succession, betting it all on a single opening to eliminate their opponent within a single maneuver. Some may even play defensive and outlast their opponent. Defensive, offensive, stalling, counter-attacking, false openings, and others; these are all methods characters can use in a fight. Different characters will use different tactics in a battle, and the same character(s) might switch tactics based on who they are fighting.

**Do NOT make your character someone who runs in to every fight, tries to win through a slugfest, gets their ass kicked, and still win in a slugfest through Nakama power. **\- Seriously, overdone as hell.

**Things to Avoid:** Before getting directly into combat styles, I want to talk in detail of what **not **to do when you are writing fight scenes. Of course, the different ways of doing fight scenes are **not **inherently bad. However, many of these ways are overdone and often times, nonsensical.

Always 1v1's: One thing I have noticed stay true for _**MANY**_ manga and anime, is how many battles end up being a series of 1 on 1's - especially if the arc starts with multiple people on each side. While not necessarily bad, doing this for every single arc will eventually make your fights predictable.

If you start an arc with let's say, five people on each side, you don't want your readers thinking: 'yep, there are going to be five separate chapters of different one versus one's.' Now, you don't need to have a five on five either. You can have it break into a one on one, two on two, and a three on three. Depending on how the scenes pan out and the story goes, the battle could even be a constant five on five where each individual member fights around the area - similar to an fps game.

Ex. On CS:S, you might end up meeting a guy around the corner, fighting a one on one. However, at the same time, one of his team mates could easily come behind and kill you, preventing you from getting the kill and then killing you himself.

In team battles, there might be multiple small skirmishes lasting for seconds, just to be interrupted by someone else and downing one of the people. You can easily play with this type of battle, where situational awareness become a much larger factor as each of the fighters will have to focus on something else other than their direct/current opponent.

Turn-based combat: A sure-fire sign of inexperience, turn-based combat is exactly as it means. You have characters hitting each other with spells or techniques one after the other. Not in the way where people switch between defending and attacking depending on the situation, but literally taking turns hitting each other.

You have people screaming 'TAKE THIS!' then using a spell, hitting the other person. They get hit, recover, then basically do the same thing. This goes back and forth until someone loses. Remember, not **all **battles have to be turn-based fights of attrition. Characters can use the environment, momentary weaknesses, distractions, unpredictable techniques, using **pocket sand**, or whatever the fuck.

If all your expertise of fight scenes come from Shonen manga, I would suggest looking at different mediums before writing a fight scene. You can look at fight scenes from MCU movies, ones from IP man, ones from Fate/Zero, or others. Don't base individual fight scenes from a single franchise either.

Ex. One fight is written like MCU, another from IP man, and another from Fate/Zero.

Instead, use the different franchises to increase your knowledge. You can have a character use moves/styles from all those mediums in a fight, then you can have another character use yet another move set in another fight.

Drawn-out Stamina battles: Something that is absolutely notorious in Shonen manga, is the villain beating the living shit out of the protagonist, only for the protagonist to basically ignore their injuries and keep coming back until they beat down the villain. Then, and _**only then**_, will they feel their injuries - often fainting for days or weeks after. Often times, they wouldn't even have _ANY _lasting injury. Seriously, is everyone made of fucking unbreakable self-regenerating steel?

While this could work in some instances, such as someone using regeneration magic - their entire fighting style goes on out-exchanging their opponents and taking punishment. Someone without any previous established ability to last a hundred times longer in fights than other people, should _not _constantly stand up after getting hit by fatal or bone-breaking blows. Doing this once or twice in a battle is fine, because there are usually pivotal points in which the protagonist has to choose to stand up or give up. **HOWEVER,** don't spam this a dozen times, because then that goes straight into platitude.

Ex. When the Game of Thrones S08E03 continued to bait their characters dying, only for many if not all of them surviving - once or twice would be enough to raise the tension and suspense, but too much and it the audience will get used to it.

**Combat Styles - Martial Arts: **When people think of 'Combat Styles,' they often think about the stances they take, the movements they use, and generally what type of martial arts they incorporate. While this is indeed one part of the spectrum, there are other parts just as well - I will be talking about it in another section.

To start off, you don't need to have your OC be a master of martial arts of the dirt-shoveling garbage style or whatever the fuck.

Ex. Honestly, the only person I remember having a 'named' style is Ikaruga with her Mugetsu-Ryu style.

Just like before, you have to think on whether or not martial arts will go well with that character. Someone wouldn't invest countless hours of training just for a 'side' skill. If your OC is a master of martial arts, it has to be a major part of their combat style.

Ex. Trystane fighting like a Ninja with throwing stars and quick combat _could _make him a user of a form of Ninjutsu.

For the most part, if the 'martial art' your character uses is self-taught, it likely wouldn't have a name. Your OC **could **name the style, but I personally think such a thing is unnecessary - UNLESS, it becomes important in the plot, such as having a student to pass on the art. If you want the OC to name it because they think it's cool? Sure go ahead, do try to keep it as less cringe as possible.

Anyways, other than named styles, what sort of physical combat could match certain characters? Remember, you don't have to be a master of Kung Fu or some other shit to have a physical combat style. Someone like Natsu who's style is basically 'Rush Recklessly' + brawling would _still _be a combat style.

For another example, let's look at Erza. While she doesn't have a 'named' style, we all know that her style consists of using swords. Not only that, she often uses techniques that would one-shot her enemy (a single cut if you will), such as when she rushed Aria and beat him instantly. While her style may differ between armours, she still uses _some _form of swordsmanship.

Now, let's look at Mystogan. Compared to a lot of the other Fairy Tail members, who specialize in melee or even brawling, Mystogan fights completely different. In the brief fight again Laxus, Mystogan did not use physical attacks once. He began with a staff laser, followed by an illusion and then a descending beam of light.

From this, Mystogan's combat style would be ranged magic combat, as well as misdirection. Not only that, he is also capable of turning incorporeal in the form of mist, meaning he is capable of escaping physical attacks such as when Laxus rushed him in lightning body.

I would describe his fighting style to be like the Shinobi from Naruto, as he uses misdirection, ranged attacks, and basically 'Kawarimi' against Laxus.

Knowing this, what should the fighting/combat style of your OC be?

It really depends on what you are going for, but I can give some examples that could help you make a decision.

If you had a Dragon Slayer OC, and they _just _so happen to be a Natsu copy, then their combat style would likely be the same. As in, run in without a plan, try to out-muscle the other guy and using generic moves such as **'blank'** dragon elbow, or **fuck dragon iron fist!** Chances are, most opponents will outmaneuver them in the first attack, but then they would eventually outlast them with _**NAKAMA FUCKING POWER. **_That, or some random power-up that wouldn't become a reliable power SUCH AS **ETHERION DRAGON FORCE.**

If your OC is using this as an example, do **NOT **do this at all. Seriously. Fuck this combat style.

Now, the second example I have for you is a speed-based, calm and collected OC. This is another type of OC I see that is basically Mary Sue, but subtle enough so most of the readers only think he's cool. In terms of fighting style, this one is **far **better. The reason why is because you can actually put tactics and internal monologue into the fight; at least more so than 'I MUST PROTECT MY_ NAPE-KATE-MAHJONG.' _

If an OC using some sort of wind magic that boosts their speed and allows them to move in three dimensions, he would _**not**_ fight like Natsu. This guy would literally be caught dead before running in recklessly. This guy would _always _have some form of a plan. Even if it's distract and stall, this OC would never run in and hope for the best. For the most part, this OC would use a lot of environment awareness, observation, and magic-saving moves before figuring his enemy's weakness, then going in for the kill.

Also, for _**GOD'S **_sake, do **NOT** give your OC dual katana's and give them some sort of style called 'Gravity blade' while using gravity magic. I BEG OF YOU, **DO NOT**. Let's leave the cancer to the anti-vaxxers, okay? Great.

**Combat Styles - Preference: **Anyways, other than martial/physical combat, what are the other factors of fighting? What I mean by 'preference,' is how the character chooses to fight their battles. For Natsu, it would be to 'hit his opponents until they are down.' For the smarter OC, it would likely be 'conserve energy, observe weaknesses, then counter during an opening.'

This section is basically how the characters prefers to begin or end their battles. This could be being a defensive, offensive, or neutral fighter. In between these three types, there could be people that are reactionary to their opponent, create false openings to bait their opponent, or even just straight up go all-out first thing to rush their enemy hard while they still have the element of surprise.

In this section, I will try to explain as many fighting preferences I can think of.

Defensive**:** For the most part, this preference will probably only work again an offensive opponent who specializes on constantly attacking so their enemy will have no respite. If a character doing this fights a smarter fighter, then they would probably figure out what they are trying to do - ergo defend and waste the other guy's energy. Once this happens, the defensive fighter will likely have to attack if let's say, the other guy starts charging up a spell that would break through his defenses and/or is undodgeable. This in itself could be bait, forcing the defensive fighter out of their comfort zone.

Anyways, what is a 'defensive' fighter? We might all have different perspectives of this fighter, but my version is basically someone who uses the littlest movements to defend themselves, evading blows that would otherwise damage them if blocked, and use their magic sparingly. They will also go for counter attacks if there are obvious weaknesses.

Ex. If Erza were to fight in her adamantine armour against a fast, rushed-based opponent, then she would be fighting purely defensively as her adamantine armour doesn't really grant her any offensive abilities.

Remember, a 'defensive' fighter is different from a regular fighter going on the defense. A regular person fighting defensively would be someone just blocking/evading for the time being, before finding the perfect time to switch it up and go on the offense. A purely defensive fighter will forever block/evade, using one or two moves to wear down their enemy until there is an obvious gap in their remaining strength.

Just as a reminder, your character's fighting style will have its roots from their character as well. Someone who was a recluse and has a more guarded personality, will be more likely to have a defensive fighting style. While they **can **have an offensive fighting style, it would make more sense for the character to have a defensive style.

Now, other than _just _defensive, there are some subcategories I want to mention briefly as well.

Passive-Defensive: This is the majority of what I have just talked about, passive-defensive is the type of defensive combat where the user attacks the **least.** For the most part, the character doing this would be just like a turtle, waiting for their opponents to exhaust themselves, or beefing themselves up to the point of damaging their opponent just from being hit.

Ex. When Elfman used his lizardman take-over, defeating Bacchus by tanking all of his hits - I would call this passive-defensive because Elfman just stands there, not counter attacking at all.

To emphasize the idea of passive-defensive, imagine yourself _not _as a porcupine, but more like a rock with jagged edges. No matter what you do, the rock will not attack you. However, if you wish to break the rock, you'll likely end up injuring yourself in the process. Of course if you say that you'll use a hammer or something, then the rock is sentient and has legs - allowing them to run away from a superior opponent.

Pretty easy right? Even an IDS author can figure out how this works.

When would you want to have characters fight like this? Personally, I don't think an OC that _**ONLY **_fights passive-defensively would be enjoyable to read, considering his fights will just be him doing nothing. Characters should have certain preferences to fighting, but they also SHOULD be willing to change that depending on the situation.

Yet again, Elfman vs Bacchus is a good example. While Elfman seems to be a more aggressive fighter**, **he realized that he could not catch up to Bacchus's speed, causing him to switch strategies. He made is so if Bacchus did **not **attack him, he would be forced to a draw. Of course, Bacchus, being the confident bastard he was, attacked the shit out of Elfman, only to fight himself into unconsciousness from constantly badgering his hands against Elfman's defence.

Now, this is an example of a generally-aggressive fighter switching to passive-defensive. What about a generally-passive-defensive fighter switching to aggressive?

Let's say you have an OC using spike magic, allowing him to protrude various spikes out of his body. Of course, this magic can be used to enhance offensive attacks too. However, more damage is done by having the enemy attack the OC, as the spikes would be able to tank hits while simultaneously damaging their opponent. Due to this fact, the OC may choose to fight passive-defensively. However, many times, the OC would encounter enemies capable of powerful ranged attacks, making his porcupine-like effect a moot skill. In this situation, the OC would be forced to go on the offensive so he doesn't get worn down and lose.

There are probably many different examples of how a character preferring to fight passive-defensively would be forced to fight otherwise. Hopefully that examples above would help you understand how a character could use different styles.

Defensive-Neutral: Instead of going to all the different subtypes of every fucking thing I can think of (which is a lot), I'm just going to focus on the main three: passive, neutral, and aggressive.

How many of you here play fighting games such as SSBM or DBFZ (super smash brothers melee and dragon ball fighter Z). If you have, then you probably have heard of the term 'neutral.' What this means, is that during a game, the players would use fast attacks and movements to try to bait the other into making a mistake. Then, when one payer _does _make a mistake, the other will 'punish' the player (hit them hard), often with a heavy combo or even performing a touch-of-death/0-to-death.

The same applies to the defensive-neutral style I want to talk to you guys about. Instead of not attacking and waiting until your enemy beat himself unconscious, defensive-neutral refers to defending and watching for weak spots.

Let's say your OC is defending an onslaught from his enemy. The OC, while defending, is watching his opponent's form and attack pattern. During this moment, the OC could notice weak spots such as a weak limb, long wind-up for certain moves, long recovery time for other moves, or even just the enemy moving in a way that would suggest a deformity/past injury.

What does the character do after he finds the opening?

**Note:** This opening could really be anything, such as a weak shoulder, magic cooldown times, etc. However, don't make it some weird shit such as the subtle 1 degree twitch of their pinky finger, forcing their aim to be 13% off the axis of the Earth or some bullshit.

Once the OC has found the opening, he will find an opportunity to attack. Depending on his reaction time, he could have missed multiple openings before attacking at the right time. If the OC strikes, he will go back to a defensive position, allowing their opponent to recover, not pressing the attack. Assuming his opponent continues attacking, the OC will repeat the same steps, until the damage done to his opponent allows for a far greater opening. Once the OC sees this, he will use a heavier move, one that is slower and likely far more powerful to deal a decisive blow.

Defensive-Aggressive: Last but not least of the defensive series, defensive-aggressive is basically Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee's fighting style), the way of the intercepting fist. What this is, is basically waiting for your opponent to attack, and then countering _faster_ than he can attack.

Imagine your opponent tries to lunge in for a front punch, but you see his setups, his footwork, and can predict his next attack. Instead of dodging or defending, you go straight in with a knee kick as soon as he lunged in, snapping his knee before he can even get his punch out, ending the fight. _That _is defensive-aggressive.

You guys know in Naruto, the Uchiha used the interceptor fist? They use the predictive and analyzing abilities of the Sharingan, allowing them to process muscle movements, foot patterns, etc. in a fraction of a second. This allows to think and react nearly-instantaneously, downing their opponent as soon as they throw a punch. Basically, to attack someone that is a master of fighting defensive-aggressively, is to attack someone knowing you will get countered.

**Note:** I use defensive styles to refer to always attacking second, while offensive prefers to attack first.

Personally, I think doing something like this is far harder than the previous two. This is because counter attacking while your opponent _**IS **_attacking, requires reflexes and predictive abilities far surpassing the norm. Your OC would **have **to be a martial artist with more than a decade of experience to do that accurately and consistently.

If you want to have a character capable of doing this, make sure to establish their focus on martial combat. Do **NOT **just have your OC show up and beat up Erza or some shit doing the interceptor fist. Seriously, Mary Sue territory right there. A character having martial prowess far above the norm should have build up and development. If you're going to skip straight to canon, past vomit, then flashback all the training, then please search up Filthy Frank on YouTube - 'It's time to stop.'

**Offensive: **Now, onwards to offensive!

First off before I say anything, having an offensive style does _**NOT **_mean that your character completely runs in or goes into a Nakama boxing match. While _that _style is indeed offensive, it is just _**plain **__offensive. _You don't need to run in without a plan in a fight, especially if you are planning to write a character that has any semblance of intelligence. I can understand if the author is of similar smarts though - if this is the case, then there is nothing I can do.

Anyways, what constitutes an offensive style? The defining factor, in my opinion, is that a character with an offensive style wouldn't wait for their opponent to make the first move. An OC with a style like this would constantly be attacking, changing their angles and spells around to find an opening in their opponent's defence. Once they find this, they will use greater strength than they had in the opening attack, striking through the opponent, either downing them right away or creating an opening for an attack capable of doing so.

Passive-Offensive: Some of you might be thinking: how are you passive when you are offensive? Same way with how people can be defensive-aggressive, with Mary Sue cancer shit :)

Jokes aside, passive-offensive is what I use to refer to a style that creates false openings. While being an offensive style, you will attack first. However, the goal is **NOT **to land a decisive blow right at the start. The goal is to fake weaknesses and use light attacks that makes it hard for the opponent to punish you. This way, the only time your opponent counter attacks is when they go for your false opening, allowing you to act on it and countering _them_ instead.

Basically, passive-offensiveness is the act of baiting your opponent with fake attacks, before striking back for real while they are no longer defending.

Just like defensive-aggressive, passive-offensiveness requires, in my opinion, greater skill than the other subcategories of offensive styles. This is because to create false openings and counter attack requires more skill than simply just attacking continuously until you hit something.

So, what types of character would warrant this kind of style? Personally, I would say it's someone used to be looked down or underestimated. They notice the trend of being underestimated, so they create a style that will lure their enemies into a false sense of victory, all while landing a decisive strike. By the time that their enemy knows they are being played, they have already lost.

You guys know Peter Baelish from Game of Thrones? I would say if he was a swordsman, this would be how he fights. Considering he gets underestimated by the other lords, he acts friendly with everyone, sets false leads and footprints, and only betrays them when he can deal them a decisive strike.

If you want an OC that fights like this, they would probably have similar circumstances when compared to Peter Baelish. Someone who is known to be very strong would likely not fight this way. This is because their enemies would be less likely to go for openings that is seemingly unlikely for someone of their reputation/skill. For a person _known_ to be strong, I would suggest on either neutral or aggressive.

For another example, let's say we have an OC that has the ability to 'lock' someone in place (like time freeze but they are still conscious). This character is smaller than average, and doesn't have a strong physical body type. Instead of trying to outlast someone or tank hits, the OC attacks first, often making enemies laugh due to his size. Of course, instead of activating his magic right away (in which he would be spotted then countered), he uses false openings to make their enemy try to attack him mockingly - such as a backhand. The moment this happens, the OC quick-casts his magic, dealing a fast but light strike on the enemy, freezing them. In the few seconds their magic is active, the OC lands a decisive strike, either with a weapon of choice at a weak spot, or another magic that allows for great damage but without needing high levels of magical power.

A quick note; just what type of OC would fight passive defensively? If you haven't already came to your own conclusions about what I said about Peter Baelish, then I shall do some exposition now.

Remember, fighting passive-offensively relies on fake-openings, or deception. The whole gist of this type of fighting is making your opponent over extend, allowing you to counter. Even _if _they see you countering, they would have taken too much time throwing out their attack. At the minimum, they will get injured enough to impact the outcome of the fight. As this point, even after one or two good hits, your OC's opponent will have slowed or changed enough for the OC to take a more aggressive route.

Neutral-Offensive: Yay! Time for neutral-offensive fighting! Being offensive, a character fighting with this type will attack first. However, instead of feigning openings, the opponent is basically an opportunistic fighter. There isn't any 'special' thing they try to do.

A character fighting like this will play the offense, forcing their opponent to defend. They won't overextend with heavier attacks until they are sure their opponent is in a position where they can't counter from. They would fight cautiously, keeping their guard up constantly, attacking without exposing their own weak spots.

I would say most if not all offensive-type Martial arts would fight like this. Most would have some form of patience and discipline that prevent them from just all out striking - this could be considered a waste of energy or at the very least, a riskier method of fighting.

For the most part, if you had an OC that is experienced in combat, **AND** prefers to fight offensively, this would be what you would go for. This is assuming you don't have some of revenge-filled Jerk Sue that hates everything and everyone. The reason why I think this preference is the go-to for most fighters, is because it allows you to fight and defeat an opponent without exposing yourself - the best of both worlds if you will.

If an opponent counters you while you are fighting like this, it is likely you would be able to defend against their counter because you aren't committing attacks you know you can't recover fast enough from - assuming your opponent is of similar skill and ability.

Now, when would you want or even **can **write a OC (reasonably well at least), that prefers to fight this way? I've seen a lot of OC's ranging from Natsu copies that just run in and hope for the best, Victim Sue OC's that literally don't fight and just get ass-beat, as well as intelligent OC's that fight exactly this way. Unfortunately, more often than not, they are usually a Mary Sue.

In my opinion, a character that knows how to fight this way probably learned through experience. Either that, or they are just naturally smart and is a combat genius - personally don't recommend doing this, because this often leads to a Sue, although it _**could **_be done well. So, if you're going to have your OC learn to fight this way, do it through multiple arcs. Maybe your OC fights defensively at the start, then learns how to look for certain things when fighting, eventually developing in this.

Remember, lessons are learned the best when they are through failures. If your OC tries attacking, and ends up overextending, getting injured or hurt _badly_, then chances are, they will remember not to fight the same way next time. Your OC could also get punished for playing too defensively, causing them to lose control of the fight and getting pushed into a corner.

Aggressive-Offensive: Before you think: Hey, Minipa has style where your OC is **completely **on the offensive! Does that mean we get to write a slugfest? Well yes, since this is Fanfiction and everyone has the freedom of choice, just like how autistic cunts can choose to eat dog shit on the ground and it's not illegal.

Anyways, aggressive-offensive does _**NOT **_refer to randomly running in and punching people with no plan. **NONE** of the fighting preferences involve not having a plan. Aggressive-offensiveness is when you constantly push the attack, where you use combos that may render you overextended, especially when compared to the styles above this one. However, the idea is to attack with such speed and ferocity, your opponent doesn't even have the chance to counter. This is because, if they even **try **to counter, one of your attacks will hit. The general goal is to throw attacks at your opponent so quickly and powerfully, your opponent can do nothing **BUT **block.

This style would likely drain someone's stamina a lot quicker than the other ones. This is because you are constantly pushing your limits to attack strong and faster. In general terms, aggressive-offensiveness is a bull-rush straight from the get go.

Don't misunderstand, rushing someone **DOES NOT **equate to blindly throwing punches without a plan. Even if a character rushes aggressively, they wouldn't just charge in without any idea what their opponent is capable of. Even for people who prefers to attack relentlessly, any experienced combatant would smart enough to at least test the waters before completely committing.

**Note:** If getting fucked by preferring to fight completely aggressively with no semblance to strategy is your method of character development for how your OC becomes a smarter fighter, then it's fine. Failures are a great way for characters to learn.

So, how do we pull off aggressive-offensive properly? That is, to be able to create a character that isn't the perfect embodiment of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris combined, while at the same time, isn't some useless Natsu copy whose only purpose is to get beat up, spill Nakama speeches and out-glare their opponent.

You guys know Bakugo Katsuki from BNHA? I think he is a good example of a smart aggressive-offensive fighter. While he _does _run in and use his explosions, he's actually a very tactical fighter that is capable of reigning his more aggressive tendencies to win a battle. A good example of this is when he fought Ochako and ended up fighting aggressive-defensively.

Now, Bakugo CAN be countered. While he is a great fighter that knows his own skills and has the brain to use them in combat, he is not infallible. While strong, Izuku was able to predict and counter Bakugo despite not using his own quirk. Of course, that is because Izuku has known Katsuki for years, and is very well-versed with being on the receiving end of his fighting style.

Regardless, this is what I am talking about. He is a character that fights by running in. HOWEVER, despite being able to be countered by smart opponents, he too, is capable of adapting and changing his fighting style depending on his opponent. He doesn't just do the same shit every time and hope for different results.

Let's assume we have an OC preferring to fight this way at the start of canon. He prefers to attack first when he has a target, but isn't so shit to be countered with something stupid, like a backhand. Like with what I said with Bakugo, an OC at canon start would actually progress similarly to him. Really depends on their personality. Although, I would say that someone who prefers to fight aggressive-offensively may be more inclined to act rash and more prone to anger when compared to someone that prefers to fight passive-defensively.

One thing that many fight scenes tend to miss is **INTERNAL MONOLOGUE**. People are self-proclaimed experts of writing about feelings when it comes to writing yaoi smut but can't seem to do the same for when people start throwing punches. I said this before, the fights in Fate/Zero are well made not _just _because of the fight scenes. It's good because it also shows the combatants' thought processes. As in, how they were going to defeat each other while trying to probe for weaknesses.

**Physical Counters: **When it comes to fighting, there are likely certain advantages that someone would have against their opponent. Some may be very obvious (such as being multiple times the size of the other), while others may be extremely situational.

For the first counter, let's look at power by itself. For the sake of categorizing, I'm going to put magic pressure/power with size/strength.

You guys know that mock fight Hafthor Bjornsson (The mountain actor from Game of Thrones + Strongest Man in the World) had with Ian McGregor? While Ian is a very experienced boxer, between those two, Hafthor would probably wreck the shit out of Ian. The reason why, is size. While it is possible for skill to overcome a larger foe in unarmed combat, having a 300-lb advantage in weight in boxing is basically a guaranteed win. If it was Bruce Lee or one of those Shaolin Monks that use deadly techniques it might be a different story, but with Ian McGregor? No.

Since the Fairy Tail world has magic, size/weight are **not **defining factors for who wins a fight - unless you're having a non-magic fight for some weird reason. Regardless, magical prowess alone can hold the same advantage over weaker mages the same way Hafthor does against Ian.

For the sake of argument, let's say Gildarts has absolute shit skill but still holds his monstrous strength. He can't do anything else other than punch with crash or throw out nets forwards (no omnidirectional blast or cushioning force by making a crater). If he were to fight against Erza, who is arguably more skilled in terms of the amount of maneuvers she can do and her sheer versatility, then he would splatter all over her as he could just punch the air and it would one-shot every single one of her armours.

Other than physical attributes, another factor would be their preferred combat styles.

Ex. Someone practicing Ninjutsu would likely have better balance than a boxer, so if they were fighting on a rocking ship the Ninjutsu expert would have an advantage.

In short, when I refer to physical counters, I mean how certain characters and their preferences for combat, as well as physical stature, may give them certain advantages in certain battlefields against people who fight differently. Of course, something like this is extremely situational. Someone with the advantage in rocky terrain could easily lose that advantage when the fight moves to a flatter area against someone who thrives off strong stances that are less viable in uneven ground.

How should you write or determine physical counters?

Considering how situational it is, and how many factors play into this, you will have to put the combat styles/preferences in a separate sheet to refer to. Basically, have all your notes regarding how a character fights and see how it pans out against their enemy. Now, you don't need to have an entire character sheet + combat style + magic for an OC antagonist that is only going to show up for a single arc (although if you spend the couple hours doing this, it **WILL** improve the quality of the fight scenes and interactions).

Of course, I'm not going to write a CDS for every thug that appears or a character that only has a two paragraph scuffle. However, if there are important characters that are on the side of the antagonist? Yep, character data sheet.

**Physical Weaknesses Introduction: **Physical weaknesses could mean many things.

Ex. Past injury, birth deformities, armour weaknesses, magic focal points, etc.

In short, physical weaknesses is **ANY **contributing factor, whether they are born with it or simply have it for a short time, that could detriment a character's physical capabilities. These are related but not in the same category of physical **weak points - **which I will expand on later.

Keep in mind that even with weaknesses, if the disparity between the strength of two characters are too great, then it's basically as if the weakness doesn't exist.

Ex. Gildart's prosthetic limbs - someone equal to Gildarts could take advantage of that. Someone of Natsu's level would still get one-shotted.

Pre-existing weaknesses: Among the massive number of weaknesses a character could have, I'm going to start with pre-existing weaknesses as the first subcategory.

What are pre-existing weaknesses? Simply put, they are something that the OC or opponent already has before they start the battle. This could be something long term or even something that they attained right before the battle.

Ex. Being born with a shorter arm, making that particularly side a weakness due to shorter reach.

Ex 2. Fighting a battle one right after the other. Not fighting at 100% due to the drained energy would be considered a weakness, however subtle.

Ex 3. Your OC just got flash-banged before a battle and has to go into the fight barely able to see.

Often times, characters with long-term pre-existing weaknesses have that particular weakness expanded upon early on in the story. If it's a Mary Sue story, it's probably an informed flaw.

Anyways, how can pre-existing weaknesses affect your OC? How will your OC react or try to navigate around that weakness? If the weakness has been there for a good part of the OC's life, chances are, it's not really a 'weakness' anymore. This is because the OC would have already taken precautions (if they're smart), or made changes to their fighting style to cover their weakness.

Ex. A weak leg could have additional armour/runes to match it with the other leg.

However, if the OC has a short-term pre-existing weakness, such as a passing disease that will be gone within a month, then chances are, the OC **will **be negatively impacted from it. This is because most if not all of the OC's physical capabilities will be diminished in this period, making their combat potential only a portion of what they are capable of at full health.

Here are some other examples of short-term pre-existing weaknesses to help you understand better.

Ex. OC stubbed his toe - causing imbalanced footing in a fight.

Ex 2. OC got sprayed with pepper spray, causing him to fight with impaired vision shortly after.

Ex 3. OC had used his magic/energy in a prior fight, causing him to enter battle at a fraction of his full strength.

Now, how would characters deal with STPE weaknesses? If it's something like disease. Then most if not all characters would opt to not fight at all (although they might still train despite doing so is complete idiocy). However, if the OC was forced to protect himself while being physically impaired, then it is likely they would decide to end the fight quickly, as regardless of their fighting style, a more drawn out fight would **not **be in their favour. This is because sickness (let's say it's a strong Flu), will likely lower the OC's awareness, strength, speed, and **ESPECIALLY **endurance. A longer fight means their fighting style being memorized by their opponent, and the OC's own abilities continuously dipping from diminished endurance.

Considering how many god damned types of STPE weaknesses there are alone, I shall end this subsection with one final example.

Let's use a common one for this example. Many of you have probably seen this weakness in effect, although you probably didn't think much about it. For this, I will be using the fatigue and exhaustion a character will have after fighting. The OC will then have to enter another fight either right after or within an interval of time that is not adequate for recovery.

For the sake of numbers, the OC's fights cost him 50%~ of his magic + physical endurance. While he is still mostly aware, his heart is pumping and he can no longer pull off some of the more difficult maneuvers he was doing before. This means, if he were to fight an enemy of equal strength and skill to the first guy, he would likely be at a disadvantage, if not lose straight up because his opponent would have had a chance to see his fighting style and develop counters.

Now, how would the OC fight in this case? Other than the obvious answer of not fucking fighting when in a tired state, let's say the OC HAS to fight. As in, his opponent is trying to kill him and he has to fight a defensive battle. Again, drawn-out battles never benefits the weaker foe. Therefore, the OC will either have to commit and power-rush his opponent, or watch for weaknesses and commit at the _last _possible moment. As in, any later then the OC might not even have enough energy to perform his move.

Permanent Weaknesses: Onwards to permanent weaknesses! A.K.A fatalism for OC authors **\- Seriously if you don't know how to change canon then WORLD BUILD.**

For this part, PW's are weaknesses that will NOT leave no matter what. For these weaknesses, this means that with the current technology and magic, there is **ZERO **possibility that they will rid themselves of the weakness in the life time.

Ex. Let's say someone has an adult height of 120cm. Pretty damned tiny right? Let's say there are absolutely no methods of growing taller, the OC cannot use titan magic for some dumb reason, and he is stuck 120cm. This is a permanent weakness as the OC will have his small frame forever, greatly decreasing his reach and physical strength.

In short, a permanent physical weakness is something like an incurable disease, or an unfixable physical condition with the current technology. However, if let's say, a guy lives for 400 years or some shit and has one arm, but as he grows older, the technology to regrow arm stumps becomes available. This would then no longer be a permanent weakness because he can get rid of it.

By this logic, _no _weakness is permanent because eventually, technology will come by to fix everything (probably even cure stupidity too).

However, despite that, I a, going to set the definition as **anything not curable by the current technology. **You could have it for your whole life, or it could be curable within the next week if some new innovation comes out.

Anyways, let's give a few examples for OC's with permanent weaknesses, at least ones that people might actually use.

Blindness: This is a weakness I've seem used a few times in the past, although these generally involve an OC that is perfectly capable of circumnavigating the weakness and really it's played off as a pity farmer and 'cool' trait.

While you don't need to write an OC that literally stumbles and fucks everyone up thousands of times, making the whole story a victim-sue tear farmer, you can easily balance it out. Remember, writing an OC with a disability is completely fine. However, that part where they learn to adapt and/or make peace to that disability it a HUGE part of their character development. Someone learning how to fight blind is more important than your OC 2v1'ing Erigor against Natsu. Although if you write 2v1's against Erigor I would be shocked to even see you on this guide.

Now, how would the blindness affect the OC specifically? Perhaps instead of him starting out _as _blind. You could have a prologue set at the beginning where he became blind. Whatever caused this could also give him some trauma that would leave some shadows that would be integral for him to release in order to further his own development.

Basically what I'm saying is that if you want to put a permanent physical weakness or disability, it has to affect your OC in some way or form. If it doesn't cause any struggle whatsoever then you are better off not putting it.

You know in Game of Thrones, Jaime Lannister was one of if not _the _best swordsman of his time? Then, he lost his main hand, and was basically forced to relearn most of his skills from the ground up. Even to his death, he was still not as skilled as he was before.

If your OC has a permanent weakness, you can definitely look at Jaime's example in how to write it off. As in, something that sticks _with _the character throughout multiple story arcs or seasons.

**REMEMBER, INFORMED FLAWS ARE FOR CUNTS.**

Flex Weaknesses: 'Flex' weaknesses are for a category I created to describe the ambiguous classification that lies directly in the middle of permanent and temporary weaknesses. Permanent until 'cured' if you will.

These weaknesses could have the same effect as both temporary or flex weaknesses (such as an amputated arm). For Flex weaknesses, the specific standard is that if left alone, the weakness will NOT be removed. However, the technology or magic available at the point **does** offer a solution to the problem. Compared to permanent weaknesses, where there are _NO _methods to get rid of the weakness, flex weaknesses **do.**

Let's use the blindness as an example again. If there was technology available that could craft a bionic eye that had equal or greater capabilities than the original eye, then the blindness would be a flex weakness.

Now, what would be some ways to use flex weaknesses into your narrative? Instead of having something like Jaime Lannister where he had to deal with something for the rest of his life/story arc, the flex weakness could be something of a quest objective, in terms being rid of it.

If we use the blind OC again, the flex weakness could either be something on the side, or it could be the defining plot point, where the story ends once he has his sight back. Of course, he would have to get through a lot of the story where he learns how to live with it, but eventually, he would gain it back. Everything that happens in the arcs, whether it is meeting Fairy Tail or getting fucked by a dark guild, would be the result of him trying different things and going to different places just to regain his sight.

Temporary Weaknesses: Temporary weaknesses are something simple to remember. In fact, many of us have probably suffered from one.

Personally I would like to think bad writing is a temporary weakness. As over time, you can only get better, right? Right? Come on guys work with me here. *Turns and sees stories of Natsu raping people.

_Well isn't it time to inject dumpster juice straight into my eyeballs with a heroine addict's used syringe._

Jokes aside, a temporary weakness could be something like a bruised foot. While in the couple days to weeks right after the injury, you would likely not be able to walk properly. Gradually, you will gain more and more of your mobility/strength back until it reaches the original pre-injury state. _That _is a temporary weakness.

To define it, a temporary weakness is a weakness that will heal itself with no effort.

If you were injured badly and needed surgery to heal, then I would count it as a flex weakness. It has a most simpler than blindness or an amputated limb, but I would still count it as a flex weakness.

While temporary weaknesses are generally shorter and less impactful compared to permanent/flex weaknesses, they can still have a major presence within an arc. I don't know about you guys, but I fell on my thumb and damaged it. All I did was ice it and even after four months, I can still feel pain if I grip things too hard. While I'm sure it will eventually get better, this is just one of the examples on a temporary weakness that can easily take up a substantial amount of time.

Anyways there are many things you could do for temporary weaknesses in an arc, in fact, many of you have probably done it already in your own stories - if you have written one.

An example I can think of where a temporary weakness holds a major presence in your arc is just simple wounds. However, the OC has to be wounded at the _beginning_ of the arc. As in, the OC has to learn the lesson of doing nothing when he is not capable, instead trusting his allies to be able to accomplish the task, or at the very least, playing a background support role.

Imagine your OC is very headstrong, like Natsu. This means that in a battle, he would likely prefer to fight in the frontlines, perhaps even opting to rush in like some dumbass just to get countered instantly (hopefully not). It would be extremely tough for a character like this to simply sit still, even _if _doing nothing is the best course of action, especially if he is injured, making him useless in battle.

Here are some more examples of temporary weaknesses.

Ex. Light sprains (ones that don't require medical attention to heal properly. Icing and massaging don't count as they just quicken the process - not actually dependent on them to heal).

Ex 2. A cut on your hand that brings various levels of discomfort (from slight pain to not being able to grip).

**Note:** For broken bones, it is dependent on whether or not the bone will heal properly if the OC does _nothing_ to heal it. If the OC just rests in bed, and the bone will heal itself, then it is a temporary weakness. However, if a cast or similar is required for the bone to heal properly, then it is a flex weakness. This is because if nothing is done, the bone will likely heal improperly.

Relative Weaknesses: Relative weaknesses are more of a grey area in terms of weaknesses. However, I decided to expand on it for more clarity on the subject.

What I mean by RW's, is how the weakness is only perceived when it is compared to something else. For example, let's take a regular 5'8 person. While being 5'8 is not a weakness, it could be a _relative _weakness if the OC was fighting a 6'10 person. The 6'10 person, let's say with similar build, would have a weight advantage, and a _huge _reach advantage. In the fight along, you could count the physical disadvantage as a relative weakness.

In short, relative weaknesses are physical disadvantages that appear when compared to something else.

You could say someone with that has really big fingers have a relative weakness when it comes to playing piano because their fingers could end up striking multiple keys at once.

In fact, RW's aren't so different from physical disadvantages.

**Physical Weak Points: **This is an expansion of the weaknesses that go hand-in-hand with them. Instead of just general deformities, injuries or disadvantages, physical weak points are tangible places that an opponent could hit to deliver far greater damage than let's say the leg.

Of course, some of these weak points are more general (such as the throat or testicles for those who have them), while some could be situational, such as a bad knee.

These are pretty easily to understand IMO, so I will just give a few examples to expand.

Ex 1. If you are somebody with testicles, that would be considered a physical weakness. This is because any strike that hits there would effectively stun you with pain. While this weak point **can **be circumnavigated with armour or that Chinese Iron Egg Kung Fu shit, that still doesn't deny the _existence_ of this weak point.

Basically, a weak point that still exists but is covered by something is still a weak point. Being bad a close-ranged combat as a weakness then learning how to fight in close range would effectively eliminate that particular weakness.

**In short**, weak points are something that is _tangible._

The weakness of being bad at something is more of an effect of an _intangible _weakness, rather then actually having a physical presence.

**Magic Usage: **Magic usage requires quite a bit of creativity to actually do well. Most people would opt straight for the dumpster dive with 'element' dragon's 'body part,' etc. Little do they know, that there are **OTHER EXISTING SPELLS AND USAGES FOR EVEN THE MOST COMMON MAGICS.**

Anyways magic usage is more than just combat. Even though this is more of a magic/fighting style chapter, I will be going through some examples of how a character's magic can be used _outside _of combat. As in, their every day life, whether to make it faster or more convenient.

Ex. Natsu using his fire magic to start a camp fire (simplest usage of his magic outside of combat).

Before we get to OC examples, let's take a look at how the canon Fairy Tail cast would be able to use their magic to aid their every day lives.

From Gray, I can think of him using his Ice EXTREMELY effectively on hot summer days. Even if he is capable of regulating his own temperature, he would be able to use his ice magic to act as some sort of sentience air conditioning for the guild, or even be a walking-talking fridge. Not only that, when he becomes stronger he can also walk up to any body of water and use his magic to create a skating rink any time of the year. If the air temperature starts to melt the rink, he can just refreeze it with a simple touch.

From Natsu, he can use his fire to regulate the temperatures around the guild, just like how Gray does when it's too hot, Natsu can do it when it's too cold. He can light fires, and likely use a miniscule amount of magic to heat up food if it got too cold (like a miniature microwave). Remember that episode where Fairy Tail had the endurance race thing? If that applies, Natsu would be able to effectively fly for short periods like Azula from the ATLAB by simply expelling his fire from his limbs as propulsion. This would make climbing mountains and hills (especially one with poor footholds), far easier than normal.

Makarov is probably the easiest examples for magic usage outside of combat. Considering he can change the length, width, and likely mass of any body part, he would be able to grab things from across the room without moving, climb mountains like Luffy from that crossover episode, or make himself really big to remove the need for a crane. There are probably a lot more ways Makarov can make his life easier with the magic; you can probably think of examples yourself, but here's a few more.

Ex 1. Erza has like, literally infinite amounts of weapons and armour right? At least, according to Mashima who still fucks a 50-year-old teddy bear and uses the squishing noises as world building. Anyways, among the vast expanses of Erza's requip space, she PROBABLY has all sorts of tools in there. Considering she can use telekinesis, AND control over 200 weapons - although maybe just a few dozen without effort - she can probably use these skills to assist in every day tasks.

If she were washing the dishes, she could levitate ten sponges/dishes at the same time, and clean them all within record time. She could basically use her magic on a rag, broom, mop, and clean her entire house within minutes. She SHOULD be able to complete even the most mundane tasks dozens of time faster than people who can't use magic.

Ex 2. Let's take a look at Trystane Aerus - the male OC for those of you who have forgotten; he has shift magic. This basically removes the need of any short-ranged travel. He could jump around Magnolia nearly instantaneously and save precious seconds by not having to stand up to grab something - as he can just change the positions of those objects.

Again, not covering every single possible usage based on canon, headcanon, or a combination of both. You guys get the thought processes behind this right? Something a character has shown to be able to do in battle, with or without effort, they are likely able to do it at a drop of a hat at home. Natsu can easily use his fire as a heater, Gray can easily use his ice for literally everything mundane, Erza can do chores really quick, Makarov can make physical labour not labour at all, Gildarts can probably excel at any demolition tasks, etc.

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**This is where I am going to cut off the chapter, Part II will focus on the magic part of fighting styles and weaknesses! **

**See you guys next time!**

**Chapter 8 Done! Next Chapter: Magic and Fighting Styles Part II**

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	9. CH9 - Magic and Fighting Styles Part II

**Chapter 9 - Magic and Fighting Style Part II**

**I am actually surprised a chapter meant to be about 5,000 words ended being 15,000+… again. Not sure if it's just me ludicrous ability to bullshit or there is actually just that many things to talk about.**

**Hmm…**

**Anyways, here's part II, enjoy!**

**P.S. For those of you that don't know, there's a discord serve called 'Minipa's Trope Discussions' at ****(https):/discord(.gg)/5WethAt****. Join in for some world building and sharing :D (Also angry ranting for those interested in that too).**

**I realized the last link I posted was actually expired :(**

* * *

**Magic Usage: **Magic usage requires quite a bit of creativity to actually do well. Most people would go straight for the dumpster dive with 'element' dragon's 'body part,' etc. Little do they know, that there are **OTHER EXISTING SPELLS AND USAGES FOR EVEN THE MOST COMMON MAGICS.**

Anyways magic usage is more than just combat. Even though this is more of a magic/fighting style chapter, I will be going through some examples of how a character's magic can be used _outside _of combat. As in, their every day life, whether to make it faster or more convenient.

Ex. Natsu using his fire magic to start a camp fire (simplest usage of his magic outside of combat).

Before we get to OC examples, let's take a look at how the canon Fairy Tail cast would be able to use their magic to aid their every day lives.

From Gray, I can think of him using his Ice EXTREMELY effectively on hot summer days. Even if he is capable of regulating his own temperature, he would be able to use his ice magic to act as some sort of sentient air conditioning for the guild, or even be a walking-talking fridge. Not only that, when he becomes stronger he can also walk up to any body of water and use his magic to create a skating rink any time of the year. If the air temperature starts to melt the rink, he can just refreeze it with a simple touch.

From Natsu, he can use his fire to regulate the temperatures around the guild, just like how Gray does when it's too hot, Natsu can do it when it's too cold. He can light fires, and likely use a miniscule amount of magic to heat up food if it got too cold (like a miniature microwave). Remember that episode where Fairy Tail had the endurance race thing? If that applies, Natsu would be able to effectively fly for short periods like Azula from the ATLAB by simply expelling his fire from his limbs as propulsion. This would make climbing mountains and hills (especially one with poor footholds), far easier than normal.

Makarov is probably the easiest examples for magic usage outside of combat. Considering he can change the length, width, and likely mass of any body part, he would be able to grab things from across the room without moving, climb mountains like Luffy from that crossover episode, or make himself really big to remove the need for a crane. There are probably a lot more ways Makarov can make his life easier with the magic; you can probably think of examples yourself, but here's a few more.

Ex 1. Erza has like, literally infinite amounts of weapons and armour right? At least, according to Mashima who still fucks a 50-year-old teddy bear and uses the squishing noises as world building. Anyways, among the vast expanses of Erza's requip space, she PROBABLY has all sorts of tools in there. Considering she can use telekinesis, AND control over 200 weapons - although maybe just a few dozen without effort - she can probably use these skills to assist in every day tasks.

If she were washing the dishes, she could levitate ten sponges/dishes at the same time, and clean them all within record time. She could basically use her magic on a rag, broom, mop, and clean her entire house within minutes. She SHOULD be able to complete even the most mundane tasks dozens of time faster than people who can't use magic.

Ex 2. Let's take a look at Trystane Aerus - the male OC for those of you who have forgotten; he has shift magic. This basically removes the need of any short-ranged travel. He could jump around Magnolia nearly instantaneously and save precious seconds by not having to stand up to grab something - as he can just change the positions of those objects.

Again, not covering every single possible usage based on canon, headcanon, or a combination of both. You guys get the thought processes behind this right? Something a character has shown to be able to do in battle, with or without effort, they are likely able to do it at a drop of a hat at home. Natsu can easily use his fire as a heater, Gray can easily use his ice for literally everything mundane, Erza can do chores really quick, Makarov can make physical labour not labour at all, Gildarts can probably excel at any demolition tasks, etc.

**Magical Counters: **Okay! Magical counters. The counters of certain magics won't be as obvious as something such as water magic vs fire magic, or fire magic vs forest magic. For example, teleportation magic. While there's no 'clear' counter such as elemental weaknesses, a magical counter could be Marin Hollow from Brandish's team who could basically cancel all spatial magic in a certain range.

Anyways, the basic idea of thinking about magical counters is this: how the core traits or usages of a certain magic could directly go against another type of magic. Some of these counters would be similar to physical counters, at least in terms of the fighting styles and usages. Others, such as the inherent weakness of fire magic against water magic, would be a counter based on the core traits - which is basically science.

Ex. Fire is a gas, and the same amount of water in volume would overpower the fire in mass.

**Note:** While it is possible for fire to overwhelm water if fire has too much energy for the water to hold before it turns to steam, the counters of fire and water (at least in my headcanon magic and science) is when two mages of similar strength fires a spell requiring similar amounts of magic. In this case, the water will ALWAYS win out in attrition. While the fire mage could beat the water mage through skill, if the two of them just launched spell after spell against each other in direct fire, the water mage will **ALWAYS** emerge victorious.

Now, you may ask: why do we need to understand magical counters? Can't I just write whatever, go back and forth, ignore continuity of power scaling, and just make my OC's win by emphasizing their friendship? Sure, you totally can.

Anyways, learning the counters of magic, especially for your core characters, allows you to better visualizes how a fight will go down. Basically, instead of just going through step 1 to 4.

1 - OC goes in confident and beats the enemy around.

2 - Back and forth conversations of random spell names.

3 - OC gets owned for some weird reason.

4 - Nakama power and enemy gets one-shotted.

Once you learn the counters of magic for both your OC and their opponents, you can go much more in depth about battle decisions and tactics. This will allow you to evolve beyond the Shonen FF-style turn-based fighting that a lot of anime and Fanfiction like to use.

Here comes the subcategories, YAY!

Direct Counters: Direct counters is something that is usually directly correlated with headcanon/canon science. Some examples could be water vs fire, fire vs grass, basically imagine Pokémon type counters but as magic.

For direct counters, the outcome of the fight between two equally skilled and powerful mages is NOT ambiguous. Just like what I mentioned before, a water mage vs fire mage that are evenly matched, the battle will always end in the water mage's favour.

Other than basic elements like these, what are some other magics that could directly counter another? Let's look at two example magics: Steel-make and wood-make. In terms of the composition, steel is harder than wood. This means, if two spells in the same shape clash, the steel spell will always penetrate through the wood without too much difficulty. This is assuming that there are no magic penalties regarding mass and composition.

Ex. Magic usage of maker spells is based on the mass of the spell, while the complexity is fully formed off mental capacity - this is what I would have in my own headcanon magic and science. It's up to you how you want to play it in your own stories.

In short, direct counters (in my definition), is something that would occur in nature, rather than being something exclusive to magic. This is assuming the science of the elements created by magic follows the same rules as their respective forms in nature.

Direct counters is something that are good to know, at least in the fundamental sense. While I assume most writers would already have a basic grasp of this, as well as doing enough world building in their own universe to create their own rules, it is still important to create some notes before fights as having these details washed out could allow you to make fights much more reasonable.

Which means no **NAKAMAISM.**

Indirect Counters: Anyways, let's move on to indirect counters. Compared to direct counters, indirect counters won't really have set rules of nature that also occur in magic. These are slightly more complex, do have their roots in physics, but isn't as obvious as fire vs water, etc.

This part is still relatively easy to understand, as opposed to the next categories. For example, if we look at Gildarts' crash magic against Jura's Earth magic. Now, I know what you guys are thinking, Gildarts have a power advantage over Jura, and would probably stomp him regardless of his magic right? Sure, I'll give you that one.

However, let's say we have two opponents of equal strength, one ONLY using Crash - remember, Gildarts can use Crash **AND **disassembly - while the other is using Earth Magic. If the Earth Mage hauls a rock at the Crash Mage, the crash mage could just break the rock into pieces right? At this point, you would think that it becomes a battle of attrition. Nope.

If the Earth Mage throws a massive house-sized boulder at the Crash mage, the Crash mage does _not _need to destroy the entire boulder. He could quite literally just blast just enough for the boulder to miss him. This would take less magic on his side than it took for the Earth Mage to move the boulder itself. The Crash mage would come out unscathed and in better condition than the other.

But wait, what if the Earth Mage saved his magic and instead increased mental strain by firing a number of small rocks? That is a good question, but that goes into the category of 'tactical counters,' which we will cover later.

Anyways, the main point for this particular example, is that crash indirectly counters Earth magic in the way that if two mages fired a spell against each other, the Crash spell will reign supreme as Earth is not strong enough to oppose a wave of crash.

The same way that someone using steel magic might have an advantage against Earth magic as well - depending on headcanon specifics. Of course, you might think this might be direct counters, but it's not as obvious or 'direct' as water magic simply snuffing out fire in the moment of contact.

Steel indirectly counters Earth as it is an inherently stronger element. Earth wouldn't magically evaporate when it touches steel.

Tactical Counters: Now, tactical counters refers more to fighting style than the specifics of each magic. Someone with a tactical counter, or even just a tactically superior mind, could overcome a direct/indirect counter and still emerge victorious.

So how do we write tactical counters? This part is particular difficult because many of the 'tactical' counters involve some intricately-crafted ultra tactic that involves the OC perfectly guessing literally every fucking move and are 47 steps ahead. Listen, tactical superiority is not inherently bad, someone like Natsu could probably be out-strategized by every other character in Fairy Tail. Even then, you **DON'T** need to have a character explain every fucking detail about abso-fucking-lutely everything about Natsu to be tactically superior.

Excerpt:

_'I was able to predict your movements by noticing the twitches of your muscles and was able to figure out your fighting pattern by exchanging two hits with you. Also, your fire dragon slayer magic is weak to this specific air pressure that I am capable of producing. Also, by hitting your pressure point on this particular point in your elbow, I can cut off all Ethernano going into your spell.'_

Although excessive, I have read some stories that go into unnecessary detail when it comes to battle stances. Sure, the muscle movements is viable, but you don't need to go over EVERY SINGLE FUCKING minute detail that may not even unnecessary.

Having a tactical counter could be something as simple as side-stepping Natsu's reckless charge, catching him off balance then following up with a spell during his short stun phase to incapacitate him. After all, unlike One Piece, battles don't need to last ten days or hours or whatever bullshit. A high-level battle could easily be decided by a single maneuver. The fight could also just last a couple minutes, as opposed to a lengthy marathon longer than the goddamned wait at the revenue agency.

Remember, you _always _need balance. Literally everything is about balance. Like, you can have people jump to extremes for months but they will usually end up with the conclusion that 'moderation/balance is key.' I've seen it happen in real life as well as in Fanfiction.

Anyways, how do we balance tactics in battle? Let's take a look at BNHA again; specifically, Bakugo and Midoriya's first battle in the hero course.

When Izuku first fought Bakugo, he already knew a bit of what Bakugo was capable, as well as his tendencies from constantly being beat up by him in the past. Not only that, Midoriya also knows his own abilities (to an extent), having some basic martial arts knowledge as well as a one-shot nuke in the form of One for All.

Now, once Bakugo and Midoriya are alone, Midoriya was able to control the fight at the beginning, where Bakugo fought as he normally did and was countered by Izuku. However, as the fight went on, Bakugo stopped dicking around and starts using his quirk in ways that Midoriya didn't know he could. This lack of knowledge forced Midoriya into a corner, where he was forced to use One for All in a single shot, breaking his arm, just to win the exercise.

This battle is a great example of how foreknowledge and awareness of one's own abilities could dictate a fight. It's a great example on how you can model your own tactics or create boundaries where the OC or their enemies can't break through right away.

Okay for a simple example. Let's say, for some **dumb fucking reason**, your OC decides to flex on Natsu first thing. You want your OC to either: sweep Natsu if he's an tactical edgelord, fight him in perfectly even terms as a dragon slayer, or get his ass handed to him by writing some weak ass pansy.

Regardless of what you choose, let's consider some factors. First, Natsu is a brawler, chances are, he wouldn't put any thought into long term fighting. He will likely have good reaction time and fighting instincts. Which means, he can predict and see movements of other fighters, but can't intentionally set traps or false openings, etc.

Tactical Edgelord: You know those OC's where they are calm and collected in literally EVERY FUCKING SITUATION with no flaws? This is basically that. While it is definitely in character for Natsu to challenge random people to a fight, having him scream fight me in every possible situation should NOT be done - unless this is child Natsu we're talking about.

There is no need to flanderize Natsu to the abso-fucking-lutely most unintelligent blockhead in the known world. However, if you have to put in that first guild fight JUST to show how much of a tactically superior cuck he is, then let us continue.

I'm pretty sure I have already mentioned the sort of movements that a tactical edgelord would use, so I won't repeat here again. HOWEVER, the results of such moves will be with Natsu on the ground, unable to comprehend what the hell just happened, with everybody watching with mouths more gaping than your assholes in prison.

Now, if you are writing a character that fights tactically, they **DON'T **need to be a scrawny speed type that everyone loves writing their OC as after the Tier 1 Mary Sue. Remember, your character CAN be power-based and still be capable of fighting smart.

Anyways, the above is just an example of what you should try to avoid. Characters can use tactics in a fight, do try to avoid the super-genius frame-perfect tactical overlord that can guess someone's tendencies by the number of cells in their gonads.

Environment Counters: Now _here _is a fun one. An environment counter is basically a stage during battle, ex. A mountain side, river bed, waterfall, etc. where the combatants have a distinct advantage over the other.

Mastering EC's can really bring an extra layer of complexity to your battle. Opposed to getting into the fighter's heads and evolving just beyond the turn-based combat everyone loves to write, having environment counters could allow your characters to switch between areas of battle as the fight continues on.

You could have started in a mountainous region, before knocking each other into a cave, and then perhaps even begin to fight underwater as the fight progresses.

Now, what are some examples of this?

For some obvious ones, we could go with a water mage vs a fire mage (again). If the water mage was fighting in a burning city against a fire mage, chances are, they will suffer a massive disadvantage against the fire mage. This is because the water mage will now have to use more magic to either generate their element or to draw them from the air (if there is any). Not only that, but the fire mage would also be able to control the surrouding flames, saving their own magic. This is not counting the tactical counters too if certain factors are in play. An example would be the fire mage being far more resistant to fire, which means the fire mage will have much greater freedom of movement.

Now, let's take a look at an example that is not as obvious to the average writer.

If we were to look at Jet vs Natsu, most people would say Natsu would beat Jet right? I get it's for good reason, but we will now look at certain 'stages' where Jet can even the playing field.

Let's say Natsu and Jet, for some dumb reason, decided to duke it out in a swamp filled with gases. It is not detrimental to human health, but stinks like hell and fills the whole area with strong scents. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that none of these gases are flammable or explosive, so Natsu can use his flames without having to worry about triggering a massive explosion.

In this situation, Jet will have an advantage due to his speed. A swamp would be filled to the brim with trees and bushes, meaning that Natsu will have to do more work to keep track of Jet. Not only that, but due to Natsu's flashy fighting style, it will be easier for Jet to keep track of Natsu, especially if Natsu is unable to pinpoint Jet's scent due to the swamp area.

Of course, during the fight, Natsu could be struck multiple times without touching Jet once in the beginning. Jet's hit and run tactics will work for however as long it takes Natsu to get used to Jet's attacking pattern, or even just uses a wide range attack to force Jet out of hiding into a direct confrontation. We've seen Natsu get used to Sting's fighting style rather quickly, which means Natsu likely would not allow Jet to have his advantage for long.

Eventually, Natsu will be able to defend himself from Jet's attacks, and soon he would be able to strike back.

So who would win this fight? If Jet is capable of knocking out Natsu before he gets used to it, then it will be Jet's win. However, from Canon, we can easily assume that Natsu's vitality is many times greater than Jet's which means Jet's strongest hits, unless they are purposely targeted in vital areas such as the neck or sternum, wouldn't wear Natsu down fast enough for him to win.

However, regardless of who wins, this situation will bring Natsu and Jet to a roughly even standing in terms of who would win the battle.

Why am I telling you about all this? Just like before, knowing environment counters can drastically change the dynamics of your fight. If you had an OC that was smart enough to take advantage of the surroundings, or hell, even use their power to rearrange the surroundings to their advantage (I'm not talking continent-level scale but more like destroying a wall or something to let water in or some other shit).

Instead of having the same boring fights over and over. You can use everything I wrote above. Of course, not all characters are capable of using everything in their disposal to fight. This is why this chapter also chains back to the character data sheet which chains to everything else.

Everything works together, EVERYTHING IN BALANCE.

**Fight Scenes: **While it **does **take an understanding of your own OC to be able to be able to do this reasonably. You must understand the limits and intelligence of your character at points in time so you write down reasonable deductions in their internal monologue.

Ex. This guy is stronger than he looks! What if I hit him from the side?

That example is a pretty basic form of internal monologue. When the fight is between two higher level opponents, you can do something like this.

Ex. Someone of his caliber wouldn't have a mistake like that… _not absent-mindedly. _If he's trying to throw a bait, it won't work! I'll hit from multiple angles at once!

When it comes to internal monologue in between exchanges, you don't have to write a 10,000 word analysis on literally every fucking muscle twitch from the opponent. The examples above is a brief comparison on the conclusions that an OC would have **BASED **on observing their opponents. You _could _add the OC observing an attack pattern, but do be careful about going into unnecessary detail.

Ex. The way he moves his arm… that means he's not going for a punch! I'll counter his next move and strike him directly in the stomach!

Again, a simple one-liner. You can easily add in some details yourself to make it two or three points. Remember, don't go too overboard with internal monologue every action (unless they are genuinely contemplating something). This is because, when you write too many words on what an OC is thinking, it can throw off the pacing, especially in a fast-paced fight scene. To balance it out, try to have one or two thoughts/observation per action.

Ex. The lines above followed by a punch/maneuver, then rinse and repeat with some variations.

Of course, doing the same thing will likely become repetitive, especially if you drag a fight continuously.

In fact, that is one of the issues I see with many OC fights. **Dragging them the fuck on.** I've seen fights that should have ended continue due to continuous power ups, reminiscing flashbacks, extremely long exchanges of ideaology, and basically a wavy repeat of rising and falling action that seemed to have no end in sight.

Remember, while fights don't have to follow the same formula, you shouldn't jump back and forth from seemingly about to end just to another round of battle.

'Long' battles don't necessarily have to be continuous punching/kicking action as well. You could add in break moments in which the combatants are not directly engaged.

These could include those exchanges of ideaology between the main villain and the protagonist - keep these short and to the point! A couple paragraphs is more than long enough for any exchange. You don't need an entire fucking chapter just to explain their differences.

Another way to have a 'break' could be after a particularly strong attack that rearranges the landscape. The small wait time for the dust to fall basically. These moments often come close to the climax of the battle, where the enemy is either defeated, undamaged then proceeding to beat on the protagonists, or is heavily injured and gets away.

While it is true that everyone has different preferences to fight scenes and how long they are, I will now give some examples of fights that I believed did well in pacing and the fighting formula.

First example: Midoriya Izuku vs Todoroki Shouto - BNHA.

Again, yet another BNHA reference; the battle between these two during the sports festival was basically the climax of the sports festival arc, at least if we are looking at it in Midoriya's perspective. The reason I believe this fight is a good example is because of the pacing.

The fight starts off quick, where both sides don't hesitate to rush their opponents as opposed to using bit by bit more strength like in some anime. Midoriya basically sacrifices more and more of his fingers and limbs as the battle goes on. Todoroki gets colder and colder and it is basically revealed that neither combatants could keep it up much longer.

Instead of dragging the stamina war on like _**some **_anime, the author chooses this moment to have the ideaology exchange, specifically Todoroki's daddy issues with Endeavor. Anyways, after the brief exchange that can easily be described in one or two hundred words, we approach the climax of the battle, where both sides use their most powerful attacks, ending in Midoriya's defeat.

While fights definitely could have multiple segments of rising and falling action, before eventually hitting the climax, this battle was well-done in its simplicity.

Opening moves - Fighting and analyzing - Stamina running out - Ideaology exchange - Climax.

Second example: Gilgamesh vs Shiro - Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Break Works.

Yet another franchise that I like for their fight scenes (although this still cannot top fate/zero because I prefer the more analytical type fights - **WITHOUT **going overboard). One of my favourite fights (despite the short length and me not liking Shiro as a character) within this anime is when Gilgamesh fought Shiro in his reality marble.

The main focus of this fight I want to talk about is how a far weaker character can defeat a superior one through tactics and simply the nature of the stronger character.

For those of you that did not watch the anime, Gilgamesh is basically an EXTREMELY - like holy fucking sweaty ball sacks - arrogant character that sees everyone as Mongrels (or dirt, in simpler terms). Shirou is the protagonist that has to fight him, despite possessing far less power.

I would estimate Shirou's attacking power as 1,000 and Gilgamesh as 1,000,000 (potentially infinity if we going from some of the bullshit lore from the original shit) - but his vitality isn't that much higher relatively.

Here is a short description of their abilities.

Gilgamesh: Has a noble phantasm called 'Gates of Babylon.' He has every famed weapon in history which likely numbers in the tens if not hundreds of thousands. EACH of these weapons can cause explosions, pierce heavily armoured targets, and likely have a multitude of effects such as insta-kill or whatever bullshit.

Not enough? He has this one weapon called 'Ea: The Sword of Rupture' that is quite literally a fucking cylindrical nuke that has no ammo limit. Basically, if Gilgamesh wanted to, he could one-shot Shirou without breaking a sweat. BUT, this is where his personality comes into play.

Shirou: Has the ability to trace and copy any sword he sees instantaneously (except Ea of course). Basically, every time Gilgamesh fires a sword at him, Shirou copies the same sword and counters it. He IS capable of creating a shield but it's not as strong as his swords. Shirou also has far less power compared to Gilgamesh in terms of how many swords he can fire/create.

Now, in short, the whole fight is basically Shirou countering Gilgamesh's increasing larger barrages as he tries to close the distance. Keep in mind that Gilgamesh tries to do it with as little swords as possible because putting any sort of effort against Shirou (who he sees as the lowest of insects) is an insult to himself. Of course, once Gilgamesh gets increasingly angry, he tries more and more, eventually actually reaching for Ea - although he still hesitates to do it.

Due to this, Shirou manages to close the gap and cut off Gilgamesh's sword arm, preventing him from using Ea and ending the fight.

If the summary wasn't enough for you, just search up Gilgamesh vs Shirou, and you will understand how a much weaker character can defeat a much more powerful character just based on certain personality traits and weaknesses.

What about the actual structure of the fight?

While there was no long exchanges of ideologies, there were definitely banter during the fight.

Opening moves - Fighting - Increasing Levels of Power - Climax - End

In my opinion, there wasn't much tactics in this fight compared to Fate/Zero or from others. Shirou was focused on countering and closing the gap while Gilgamesh was simply blasting Shirou continuously with more and more swords. While not as emotionally impactful compared to the BNHA fight above, you can still pull off a fight scene that focuses more on a singular goal/target instead of a light-changing experience.

Remember what I said about balance? Making every single fight a emotionally deep experience is not recommended. Considering you need build up to pull off the impact, doing build up for every fight would become strenuous, while not doing build up would cause the fight to lack impact.

**Environment Changes: **Now, a little add-on to environmental counters. Environmental changes is basically when a fight moves from one scene to another. This could be from the sky to a mountainous region, a river to a calm lake, or really just anywhere to anywhere.

Environmental changes are also not limited to two, if you want to change environments multiple times in one fight, you can do so. However, keep in mind that the fight should make sense to the land's topography. A mountainous region shouldn't randomly switch to a desert unless there was world building notes before mentioning that the mountainous region was close to the desert area. Not only that, the fight should also be at a scale that involves movements of multiple kilometers.

Just like the other sections, environmental changes add another layer of complexity and realism to your fight. Instead of imagining the combatants standing still and taking turn casting spells, it's like a three dimensional quick-paced fight with varying camera angles zooming back and forth the skies.

Now, let's say we have a two characters that are fighting at an S-Class mage's level. Both of them can probably clear kilometers of land at their maximum in a couple seconds, and they are both melee-type fighters. Considering this, they would likely run at each other back and forth, using the land to switch angles, as cover to attack, or even as natural defenses.

For the example, let's put these fighters in rainforest area with lots of tall trees, small mountains, large boulders and small rivers. There would be many diverse subscenes in this area, including rocky clearings, rapids, dense forests, tree tops, mountain gorges, ravines, possibly even areas with absolutely massive tree roots in the heart of the forest. These are all scenes you can use for the battle that would exist in a rainforest area, possibly more if you have more world building as well - ex. Sentient trees hundreds of meters tall that literally have branches that move like arms randomly (creating stage hazards if you will).

You could have the battle begin with a clearing, perhaps a conversation went wrong or negotiations failed. The two charge in headfirst and begin pummeling each other from place to place. Eventually ending up in ravine.

At this point, perhaps of the combatants have much better agility, making the area more advantageous for him as he could strike from multiple angles. This could allow the fight to be ended right here, meaning that the other guy would have to find a way to get out, and likely be forced on the defensive until they are on even footing.

Okay, so for easy reference, the guy with the advantage in the ravine is Guy 1, and the guy without the advantage is Guy 2.

So guy 2 is now trying to get out of the ravine, and is on the defensive. He knows he is going to be worn down at this rate and likely lose if he doesn't get out. He looks around, sees an exit and attacks Guy 1, forcing him to dodge back. Instead of pushing the attack like guy 1 is expecting, guy 2 darts straight to the exit and manages to get away despite not being as fast as Guy 1.

However, as soon as they exit, they find themselves in a swamp-like area with a body of water and multiple rocks. Guy 2 jumps onto the rocks, and Guy 1, still confident, jumps after him. After this, Guy 2 realizes that Guy 1 is having a harder time to balance on the mossy rocks, whether it is due to their size difference or shoes it doesn't matter. All it matters is that Guy 2 now has a slight advantage over Guy 1, and they both know it.

However, since Guy 2 was able to escape the ravine, he charges aggressively, forcing Guy 1 to dodge further into the rocks to prevent his escape. Guy 1's only choice is to outmaneuver guy 2, which is now much harder due to his disadvantage, or to jump into the water.

Let us assume that Guy 1 decides that he cannot make it back to shore without Guy 2 laying on him, so he opts to just jump in the water, and tries to swim away on the other side. Guy 2, while having advantage on land, has to jump in the water with him to chase, as there aren't rocks/boulders close enough for him to follow that way.

Now that both Guy 1 and Guy 2 are in the water, neither of them have any distinct advantage. Both of them are relative good swimmers and neither are that well-versed in water combat. Considering that Guy 2 entered the water after Guy 1, he is just keeping up with Guy 1, meaning he won't be able to catch him anytime soon unless he tries harder and wastes more energy.

I can probably go on until the fight is over, but I'm saving the example fight for another section.

Regardless, I'm hoping you understand how different 'stages' could occur in an area, how combatants can switch between these stages (whether voluntary or involuntary), allowing more complexity into each battle.

Stage Hazards: Mentioned in the above, stage hazards is basically something outside force - likely from nature, that are occurring consistently in the area they are fighting. If hit by these hazards, it could either cause an injury - meaning a disadvantage, or even just straight up kill them.

There are _MANY _different types of hazards, so here are a few examples that will help you understand what they are better.

Erupting Volcano: Let's say for some dumb reason, your characters are fighting on an erupting volcano. This is probably one of the most extreme examples of stage hazards, so do be sure to understand that not everything has to be on this scale.

Let's say that none of the characters fighting have heat resistant, and all of them have to actively avoid the constant barrages from nature.

Now, what specifically would be the stage hazards? You might think, it's an erupting volcano, so it's pretty obvious. Not as much as you think.

1) Lava: Likely the most obvious of the hazards, an erupting volcano is constantly spewing molten rock that can easily insta-kill someone through contact. The fighters have to be vigilant to avoid all the lava, whether or not it is slow-flowing, or being launched through the sky.

2) Volcanic gases: When a volcano is erupting, it releases clouds and clouds of poisonous gases, some could be slow-flowing like lava, but some can be expelled from the mountainside with no warning whatsoever. If the fighters aren't aware of this, they could easily breathe in a lungful of gas and end up dying.

3) Falling debris: With the force of eruption and the vibrations, likely boulders and hot rock will be unearthed and sent tumbling down the mountain. While this is one of the easier ones to be aware of, being distracted for a single moment could result in being splattered on the side of the mountain.

4) Hidden Lava: Unlike just a pool of orange liquid, hidden lava is something where the top has cooled of, resembling rock with the exception of some orange lines. It is harder to see, and if a character jumps on it expecting it to be normal rock, then they are going to be in for a nasty surprise.

Ship in the middle of a storm: Another more extreme example, this stage has fewer things that would insta-kill the fighters, but still has enough power to knock them out or cause them to lose the fight altogether.

1) Rocking boat: Pretty simple, during a storm, the ship would be rocking back and forth according to the waves, this would make balance far harder than normal. This means that the fighters could easily trip if they are not aware, causing them to injure themselves or become open to attack.

2) Falling Debris: When a ship rocks, the things on the deck would fall back and forth. Any of these items (such as barrels, metal cannons, or just whatever heavy as shit) could end up hitting one of the fighters and disable them.

3) Entering water: When the waves hit, water will enter the boat, either being strong enough to knock people over, or even just make balance even harder than it was before.

4) The storm itself: From the storm, there would be strong winds, potential lightning strikes, and pelting rain that could affect visibility. All of these could easily end the fight.

Anyways, there are more examples to be given, such as earthquakes, an urban city with rushing cars, a desert area with quicksand, a jungle with poisonous insects, etc. Anything where things can exist to basically injure you, is a stage hazard.

**Example Fight:** Anyways, I won't get into too many examples. However, let's say we have an OC that prefers to fight neutral-defensively, but is capable of switching to neutral-offensively. He is not well-versed with the other styles of fighting. While he _could_ use them, his combat level will drop significantly when compared to the two styles he is good at.

His opponent will be someone who prefers to fight passive-defensively, and can switch to aggressive-defensive or passive-offensively. This fighter uses patience and deception to beat his opponents. He is not capable of using any of the other styles.

Just to make it easier to track.

OC: Fights neutral-defensively - capable of switching to neutral-offensive. Not good at other styles.

Opponent: Fights passive-defensively - can switch to aggressive-defensive or passive-offensive. Uses patience and can't use the other styles.

In this hypothetical battle, deciding who actually wins would be difficult because both of them are assumed to be relatively equal in overall combat potential. This means one could have an advantage in strength, while the other in maneuverability. Instead of going about who wins and loses, I will be doing an analysis on what the two characters would do in certain situations, when the battle progresses, or when the environment changes mid-fight.

To start, let's say the two fighters are in a forest area, which means the environment could switch between a fast moving river, to a waterfall, grass clearing, dense forest area, or even mountainous terrain. Both fighters would have some sort of advantage/disadvantage in the environment, and I will try my best to predict what the two fighters (based on the information I have already given) would do.

Stage one: Both combatants are standing a good distance across from each other, meaning they wouldn't be able to do some cheeky-ass assassin movement. Only special techniques could allow an attack in without the other reacting to them.

Ex. The opponent could have a shifting type spell that allows for instant travel.

However, for the sake of argument, **neither** fighters will be capable of instant travel or extreme-speed spells such as Shunpo from Bleach. If I didn't do this, we would be venturing into YouTube fighting analysis territory and let's not go there, okay? :)

Let's assume neither fighters know how the other person fights. Once the battle begins, either by random countdown or just the background battle music, the opponent would simply just remain still, keeping his eyes locked on the OC. The OC, being a neutral-defensive fighter, would likely be beat in patience, meaning he would be the first to switch to a more offensive style.

Once the OC has switched to neutral-offensive, the first exchanges in this battle will now occur. Both sides are scouring for weaknesses in the other's form, where the opponent is mainly dodging and blocking. Considering the opponent fights passive-defensively, he would not be counter attacking unless he is sure he can land a hard/decisive hit.

Now, we can assume the two are now fighting like DBZ with all the badly animated punch spamming - where the OC is throwing all of the punches. Eventually, one of them will show a weakness. Personally, I think it's not really probable for both of them to show their weakness at the same time. At their level of combat, it is likely one of them would make a noticeable mistake before the other, and likely be at a disadvantage because of it.

For the sake of the example, let's say the OC was the one to make a slip up. In one of his attacks, he gets impatient and tries for a stronger attack - one with a longer recovery time. This attack is blocked by the opponent, then countered, allowing the OC's opponent to land a strong hit directly in the OC's stomach.

At this point, the OC's is still capable of fighting; however, the damage is done. Some ribs are cracked, his muscles are bruised, and he had the air knocked out of him.

Some of you might be thinking, why don't the OC just _not _fight? For the sake of argument, let's say the OC is under a time limit to complete a mission. His opponent is the last obstacle and he just so happens to be blocking the only passage.

Now that we have established the OC **must **attack, or else he loses by default because he fails the mission, we can continue.

Let's say the OC is **NOT **completed retarded. Which means he isn't some dumb Shonen protagonist that would just run in and keep punching the guy, wearing his own body down and somehow completely outlasting the guy wailing on him.

No. If you do that please kindly kill yourself :)

Anyways, edge aside, the OC wouldn't just run in over and over again. Considering their physical capabilities are evenly matched (or roughly), the OC would lose if he kept running in. This is especially true considering he has just been nailed in the stomach, meaning he likely now has a physical disadvantage.

So how does he approach? The OC's opponent is still watching him, remaining still and blocking his way. The OC can no longer fight the way he likes in this situation - neutral-offensive. If he tried to, his opponent's slight advantage would likely allow him to land another hit, and continue that pattern until the OC is down. This means that he has to draw him out somehow.

The only way he could win, is by playing mind games, and forcing his opponent into a position where the OC can strike him back, meaning he would have to fight passive-offensively.

At this point, the OC knows that his opponent will attack only when there is a direct opening, meaning he would have to fake it. Considering the OC isn't experienced with this fighting style, he would have to gamble his next few moves, as whether or not he wins can be determined in the next few seconds.

Whether or not the OC succeeds here depends on plot. If you want the OC to learn some valuable lesson and end up failing the mission, then you can have him lose here. If the OC has to win, then perhaps the OC managed to try to final desperate move to catch his opponent by surprise, getting past him and achieving the objective without actually defeating him.

Continuing on, the OC knows that his opponent has a rough idea of what he and his magic is capable of. Using that knowledge, the OC fakes a move, making his opponent think, at least for a brief moment, that he was capable of something else. The opponent, being safe and cautious, defends accordingly, but is instead struck by something at another angle. That one move alone has evened the playing field in turns of damage and stamina.

Even better, the OC takes his opponent's momentary surprise and follows up, knocking him away from the objective.

Of course, his opponent is far from defeated. However, the OC's goal is NOT to defeat his opponent, but to get past him. He takes this opportunity to sprint as fast as he could towards the objective, making it impossible for his opponent to catch up to him.

Just like before, I can continue on and on and on; from the previously mentioned objective, the OC was under a time limit to complete the mission and to get past his opponent. Remaining just to win would be counterintuitive to his goals, therefore he sprinted away.

When your OC is in a fight, they do not have to necessarily defeat their opponent. Sure, Natsu may have wanted to beat Gildarts even though he just had to 'get pass' him, but this is not needed in every situation.

Additionally, if you have a fight between two evenly matched opponents, have basic notes on what they are capable of, and what they are like to see how the characters could manipulate the other in any situation. Just like how the OC, in this example, was able to throw off the opponent off and knock him away, allowing him to complete the mission.

All in all, don't be afraid to get out of the norm!

**Trystane Aerus: **Finally! We get to the OC's. After a horrendous 17,000 words of shit, we can finally get to the FUN stuff!

Nice! *High-fives all around*

Considering Trystane's 3D multi-angle ninjutsu-like style, I would say he would likely fight defensive-aggressive and offensive-aggressive.

Trystane would likely take advantage of his speed and mobility. Meaning if he wanted to save his energy, he would fight defensive-aggressive. This would compliment his fighting style because of his speed and trained vision. Due to the nature of his magic, his mobility would be far above the norm for mages of his caliber. Additionally, considering his magic is based off eye-sight, he would likely have trained his own eyesight or improved it with some form of magic. This will allow him to look for openings when his opponents are attacking, and easily shift into a different position to catch them off-guard.

However, if Trystane was under a time limit, then offensive-aggressive would be his go-to. Once again, his mobility and fighting style will allow him to hit from angles most other fighters aren't able to. Meaning if he were to shift around an opponent, and attacking from every angle, his opponent, if they are evenly matched with Trystane, will get overwhelmed unless they have some sort of magic that could defend against an omnidirectional attack (such as barrier magic).

How he can get countered or defeated is something I won't get into. Hopefully by this point, you will able to figure out examples yourself through the previous sections.

**Mio Vandelarah: **Mio! The lovable nerd-girl that doesn't have any sort of combat ability. _How _would she fight, if she could? Considering she is a researcher/scientist/explorer, she would likely be pretty damned closed to a pacifist, only fighting when she absolutely has to.

Since she uses enchantment magic, and has A LOT of knowledge about topography and many things in general, she would likely be a trapped based fighter. She is the type to use her enchantment in conjunction with scientific rules to injure/disable her opponents with chemical reactions and/or weak spots (if she is well-versed in biology as well).

She would likely be a novice in terms of actual combat. She would train very little outside of her own enchantments, and would spare very little time in physical conditioning. All of her spells are likely more utility based as well.

**Conclusion: **For those of you that managed to read the entire thing, you should now have a decent idea on what fighting styles would fit certain characters, what techniques you can use for various fights, and how **not** to fall into beginner traps such as turn-based one-dimensional combat.

All these techniques above can be used in different situations, make sure you balance everything out and use everything to platitude. There are things that _ARE _generally more common in fights, and things that are less. Make sure you understand the distinction and use the appropriate scenes and stages for each fight.

Remember, depending on how you want the fight to go and what sort of impact you want, the techniques to complement that could be completely different!

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**Chapter 9 Done! Next Chapter: Canon Insertion! AKA HOW NOT TO BE FATALIST.**

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	10. CH10 - Canon Insertion: Arc Changing I

**Chapter 10 - Canon Insertion: Arc Changing Part I**

**OH BOY! Guess what time it is?**

***Drum roll***

**IT'S CANON INSERTION.**

**You know what that means right? It means we finally get to the BIGGEST FUCKING ISSUE OF LITERALLY EVERY FANFICTION (seriously if you can master this you are basically good enough to be an original story writer).**

**Fatalism.**

**FATALISM.**

** M.**

**AHHHHHHHHH *bleeds out of every orifice and writes an angry letter with blood***

**I don't know how many times I have used this word, nor how many times more I will. One thing I know however, is that I have a dream that ONE DAY, people will learn how to world build :D**

**Despite knowing that very few people would actually read this portion of the guide, I implore those that do, please spread the word of beating fatalism, whether by acts or example. **

**By this point of the guide, all of you all have a good idea on how to make a compelling character with well-thought out backstories and motivations (I hope). Now? You will learn how to put them into a story :)**

…

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**Also, the chapter ended up being more than 15,000 words again so it's two-parter time!**

* * *

Before I begin, I want to, once again, define what fatalism is.

**Fatalism:** Fatalism refers to that no matter how hard we fight against fate, it WILL happen. When I use this word to refer to stories, it means no matter how much the author writes, the plot will always, AND **ALWAYS**, be canon. This could be because of a variety of reasons; I will expand on these later.

**Introduction:** What do I mean by canon insertion? When you are writing an OC, whether original or self-insert, you will have to add a new element of the story from inserting a character, one that wasn't present in the original - or 'canon.'

Of course, by adding something new to canon, chances are, it will create a butterfly affect from the get-go, creating a wave of rippling change throughout the entire storyline, possibly changing the future arcs to the point where it barely resembles canon.

However, an issue for 95%, possibly higher, authors is that the story literally doesn't change from canon. At least, apart from the fact that their OC is acting like some sort of side character that's in every group scene. Essentially, the author is grabbing the pieces from canon, adding **ONE **new piece (their OC), and rearranging one or two things just so everything would end up the same.

I believe I expanded on why people write fatalist stories before, but I will say it once more here.

People write fatalist stories not _just _because they are incompetent and lazy fucks that can't spell literature. They are inserting their own character as a way to voice their reactions in each individual scene in the anime/manga. Basically, their character is there to react **AS **the author, say what they wanted to say to the characters, and do what they should have done. In short, fatalist story is a overcomplex piece of work designed to review the story - _especially _true for bash fics. If the author were to change canon, then the events of canon wouldn't happen exactly in the way where the author can insert their avatar to 'review' it.

Anyways, how do you _not _write a fatalist story? I'm sure you all heard me say to world build before, but there is more to that… _**way **_more. In the following three chapters (including this one), I will give you an in-depth guide on how to break out of the pattern of canon regurgitation.

**Prologues/Intro: **Before starting, here is a message from your friendly neighbour - **Corn Muffins!**

'If you start your OC story off in Hargeon with Lucy finding your character; please mail me your personal information so I can mail Ketamine to your house and call the cops. While also sending death threats to every family member of FBI agents in your home-state, with your Facebook account. Thank you, and go fuck yourself with a pine-cone :)'

Thanks!

Anyways, considering this chapter is focused on the plot element of canon insertion, I won't be talking much about relationships and world building. I will be referring to them, but no actual category will be given.

From the beginning of the story, you will likely have written a prologue or an introduction (intro for those that just jump right into their plot or canon). For prologue writers, it could be a dragon slayer OC losing their dragon parent, an SIOC dying in real life and reincarnating, or just scenes that outline the events that happen before the main plot begins.

Regardless of what it is though, the question is: how do we write them? Is there also a 'right' way to write prologues/introductions? While there are many ways to accomplish these tasks, with no clear right/wrong way, I will still give you some pointers/advice that will enhance whatever has been planned.

To start, we must figure out what _type _of P/I (I'm just going to use this to refer to prologues/intro) you are writing. There are many different variations of similar methods, but I will be focusing on some main ones. If you are planning to write an SIOC story, that means your prologue would be different from let's say, a dragon slayer OC story.

With an SIOC story, you might write a short chapter on the events that led up to whatever caused the world change (truck), the single, original event that made your SIOC (truck), go to the other world (truck).

…Seriously if you use a truck/car to kill the SIOC you should really just do that in real life too.

Anyways, I do believe I mentioned the methods of world changing in the original Trope Discussions, which means that for this part, I will just focus on the prologue that people might write for each type.

SIOC - Reincarnation: For reincarnation (regardless of how they died), there are multiple scenes that I believe should be written down prior to the main plot.

The first, is a brief description of how the SIOC (or Real-Life OC inserts in many cases - difference being it's just an author avatar detached from the author themselves) lived their life. This will shed light on any motivation and be a good indicator on what the SIOC would do once they are in the new world.

Ex. A Fairy Tail fan boy could just insta-rush Fairy Tail, a depressed wrathful teenager could end up becoming a dark mage, a fluffy introverted girl could end up becoming a fix-it character for the canon cast.

For the sake of argument, let's go with a depressed teenager that's not necessarily wrathful. They have lived a relatively unsatisfying life. You know, get home from work/school, watch anime, play on weekends, rinse and repeat. Nothing too special.

Perhaps somewhere in the prologue, there would be internal monologue of the SIOC mentioning how boring his world is, how they wanted something to happen, and basically start anew. Depending on how long you want to make the prologue, there could be varying levels of detail. However, I recommend keeping it short and simple.

Introduce the character - Write some scenes to get a general look on their character - write how they feel about their current life - write some hints on what they _would _do in another world - write some scenes to show their previous relationships (optional) - event that kills them.

Really, you can accomplish the prologue with 1,000 words. The goal is not to repeat the same detail in different terms, but to practice conciseness, especially when it comes to internal monologue. Emotions can be expressed clearly without continuous repetition.

**P.S. **On a side note, regardless if your SIOC retains their memory or not, some manner of their past lives _SHOULD _carry over to their new one. For example, someone who drowned could be afraid of water, the same way how someone who burned to death could be deathly afraid of Natsu's magic.

**Note:** Your prologue is what is meant to hook a reader, if you write much or too short, it could decrease interest or even fail to spark interest.

Now, let's say you have outlined everything relatively well. You have your prologue planned and you just need to write it out. Everyone's writing style is different, although some technicalities can be objective in terms of quality. Regardless though, the last thing you want to decide is whether you want to include some of the earlier ages of the 'new' life in your prologue.

For some people, the prologue for an SIOC only refers to the events before entering the new world. For me, it's whenever the plot actually begins. This means that all the baby, child, and possibly early teen ages would be apart of the prologue. This is because the main plot doesn't really begin until some sort of shit goes down somewhere down the line. There would be snippets of early ages and possibly scenes such as magic training. All of this however, I would include as the prologue.

For an example, I consider my entire Book 1 of my own original character series to be the prologue, as the whole book introduces many themes of the story, especially considering its scale. However, you can argue the actual prologue ends at Chapter 2, considering that's when the first shit goes down.

SIOC - Instantaneous World Shift: While the rules of writing a prologue works similarly compared to reincarnation, the instantaneous world shift refers to SIOCs that enter the new world in a fashion resembling Re:Zero. Just like Subaru, the SIOC basically just walks down the street or whatever the fuck, then finds themselves instantly transported to the new world.

The theme of the prologue could be different, considering the reason being the shift could be a reoccurring phenomenon in the story. The SIOC could ask questions regarding the nature of the shift, the why, the how, and whether if other people were shifted just like him.

In terms of structure the prologue could be done in the same way. Although for this method, considering there isn't any early ages or magic, the prologue could end as soon as the shift happens.

SIOC - Chosen: A little more on the crack/Mary Sue side, chosen is when there is some sort of middle ground between the old world and the new world. This method usually has some sort of deity or divine being acting as the middleman between worlds, often granting the SIOC with some sort of tools or power native to the new world.

With this type of self-insert, there's usually some sort of mission that the god/being requires the OC to accomplish. Some of them are dramatic, such as saving the world from some evil god, while some are retarded such as having to join Fairy Tail - O_o …Seriously, this shit actually happens.

Anyways, all of you reading up to this point would have enough of an understanding of your OC to know which type of self-insert would fit them.

Regular OC: For the prologue of a regular OC, we will have to look at specific examples. Generally speaking, they will still follow a similar structure. Introducing the character - some scenes to explain how they are like - scenes giving some of their relationships and background - shit that goes down, starting the plot.

Anyways, basic structure aside, what sorts of prologue can we expect from OC's?

For a common one, we can look at dragon slayer OC's. I'm sure many of you have read a dragon slayer OC story before considering the Fairy Tail OC scene is completely saturated with them. How the authors of these stories write their prologues differ from one or the other. However, the main ones that I've noticed is usually something like this.

1) The prologue is similar to Natsu's own history. The OC would have their village destroyed by something (Acnologia, dark guild, dark mage, war, etc.), the OC would be forced to navigate by themselves for awhile, often young. Soon, the OC would be found by a dragon, before being taken in to become a dragon slayer. After some basic training (or like twelve different elements if it's a Mary Sue harem), the dragon will disappear, clearing the way for the plot to advance - meaning OC goes to Fairy Tail.

On a side note, there's some absurdly retardedly stories that have the dragon leave a fucking **KATANA **as well as a note telling the OC to _**JOIN **_Fairy Tail. Seriously, the fucking fuck? Are you seriously so plot-deaf that you must create incomprehensible bullshit of this level? Christ.

Anyways, usually this is where the prologue actually ends. If you want to give a tidbit on the OC's life before canon, you could potentially make an entire pre-canon book a prologue (like how I did). However, for the sake of argument, let's refer to the prologue in _this _particular example, as the time from the very beginning of the village, to where the OC joins Fairy Tail or whatever the fuck guild.

2) The second one is less of a prologue and more of an intro; instead of starting the story way before canon, the story actually starts somewhere after canon. This usually assumes that the OC has been a part of the guild for awhile, and they are just returning from a mission. OC's that do this are generally far stronger than the other canon cast.

I personally don't like this method as the OC's that use this often end up spotlight stealing, or are at a level of strength that create an 'imbalance' in the canon arcs. This is especially true because many of these stories are fatalist as well.

3) The third one is another common one, and in my opinion, the worst one. This is because the third method involves the story starting directly AT canon, often having the OC join on the exact same time as Lucy. In this case however, the prologue would be relatively short, and is basically the Hargeon arc involving Lucy, Natsu, and Bora.

Of course, as expected, there is zero change from canon other than the OC making side comments.

Anyways, the above doesn't really tell you how to write a prologue (at least in depth), just what to categorize _as _a prologue/introduction.

**Writing your Prologue/Introduction: **Now that you know what constitutes as a prologue, let's move on to _writing _one.

The point of a prologue is to introduce a reader to the character, as well as grab their interest for the story. Assuming that you have read the previous nine chapters (or at least the creation part because we all know people chapter skip on this website), you should already have a well-made character, as well as an in-depth understanding of what the character would and would not do.

You know exactly what makes the character tick, you know their motivations, struggles, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, etc.

Now, you just have to pick the traits you want to introduce, the magic (if applicable), the timeline, and place.

Let's look at Trystane Aerus, the edgy shift mage dressed in all black. If I were to write a prologue for his story, how would I do it?

Well first, I need to find out when, where, and how he got to Fairy Tail, as well as his backstory.

For his backstory (reread the backstory examples of Chapter 4 for reference), he was born in the country of seven, and was basically living as a gang before his gang was taken out by rival gangs. Then, he used his stealth skills and magic to escape the country, eventually finding his way to Fairy Tail.

Now, just from that backstory alone, we already have a good idea on how to write the prologue. From, we have two obvious methods to do it from.

1) We can go the mysterious past route, where the prologue starts out where Trystane is already in Fairy Tail, and his backstory is revealed in flashbacks. This is something that many OC authors gravitate towards. The reason I believe this is, is because that it allows them to write the backstory as it comes, allowing the author to publish the story without putting as much effort.

I personally don't like this idea because of the beginner trap above. Publishing a story without planning is not a good idea, especially if you want it to continue. I have seen many people write one-shots with no world building, then continue it due to popularity. These stories often end up getting rewritten, dropped, in indefinite hiatus, or the author just losing interest altogether.

If you want this method because you plan on making a separate arc to explore the OC's backstory, then that would work here. However, if you do not wish to explore that part of the backstory in a flashback, or have a separate arc after canon, then I would not use this method.

2) This is what I like to call the **linear prologue.** This means the story travels on a linear timeline, with _some _flashbacks. However, even with that, the backstory of the main character will continue in a linear fashion. The whole story and adventure are the life of the OC as it pans out - this is the method I personally used in my ROTLB story.

Is this method particularly good? Just like other methods, it has its pros and cons. One example of a pro is that you can create a connection between the character and the readers from the get go. This means that the reader would not have to see a character lash out or act cold for tens of chapters before finding out why they act this way - especially if the 'why' wasn't done thoroughly.

An example of a con, is that it removes some of the mystique of the character. If we were to write the first or first couple chapters as the early lives of the OC, then we will know how Trystane got his magic, his upbringing, why he acts the way he does, and where he was from. However, if you have other methods to create mystery and a sense of longing, then it really doesn't matter. Additionally, using this method means a different tone for the story.

When it comes to these two methods. I personally prefer the second one. This is because when you write a character with a mysterious past, it's difficult to make them the 'main' character. The story POV seems to become muddled on whether the OC is the main or a side character. This is because the point of view is told in a way that makes the narrative want to find out more about the character. Of course, this could be NOT because of the method itself, but due to incompetence of execution. Anyways, the second allows you to follow the OC's life as he goes along. This creates a far deeper connection, in my opinion, when compared to the first method. Not only that, but the extra step or writing the prologue for the backstory, decides that the OC, beyond reasonable doubt, **IS **the main character.

Considering multiple chapters have already been written for the OC's upbringing, it would be difficult for the story to become fatalist.

Anyways, for the actual prologue of the OC, I will go with a slight combination of both, with method two being more dominant. Instead of telling absolutely everything of Trystane's time in Seven, I will begin the story from his time as a refugee. This means that the details of Seven would be vague, and his time there would be hinted by internal monologue. However, what the audience knows for SURE, is that Trystane was running from something, we don't know exactly what, but we know he is trying to escape to build a new life.

While not able to create the same level of impact as method, we are still able to create a connection between the readers from Trystane's time on the road. He could have injuries from his escape. He could have a particularly nasty outlook on life or even be in depression. We don't know the events that caused this, but we know _something, _something _bad_, happened in Seven. This creates a balance of mystique and connection.

Now, there are multiple ways to introduce the character: internal monologue, his reaction to his experience on the road, or even certain mentalities when going into conflicts. For example, during his time on the road, we could have him run into unsavoury people. Whether or not these are dark mages or just a random gang is irrelevant. However, the scenes that are included in the prologue all have a purpose. The fight between Trystane and his opponents is a means to tell the readers what sort of magic he uses. Of course, since we are going with _some _mystique, I wouldn't explain all the details and his weaknesses right away.

Remember, every little detail: Trystane's method of subduing weaker enemies, his reactions after defeating them, whether or not he 'spares' them, whether or not he turns his back to his enemies after defeating them, are _all _things that need to be answered as they give a glance to Trystane's character.

Anyways, regardless of all the million fucking things we could do for the prologue, let's write up a '**chapter progression timeline**.' What that is, is a list (doesn't matter what form it is in), of scenes that happen throughout the chapter and their purpose. Instead of having a loose idea of what's happening, having an entire prologue/chapter planned will make all the words come out that much quicker - solves writer's block in a sort of way.

Prologue Notes:

\- Scene starts with Trystane walking on the road, he has an unkempt appearance. Around this point he has been on the road, living on the wild/streets for a few months. It is one year before Canon at this point - Year X783.

\- Internal monologue of his time before running. Trystane is angry and bitter, although having some peace in the form of escaping his country, with little to no attachments left.

\- Scene where Trystane sees other people on the road, having difficulty with reaching something too high. Unknowingly to them, he shifts them, showing that he still has compassion within him, as well as opening the curtain to his magic. He continues walking as if nothing happened.

\- Time skip a few days, and he reaches a city in Fiore (OC city). He enters through the ghetto area, where law enforcement is often stretched thing and the area is filled with gang members and hideouts for dark mages. Trystane walks through, ignoring them, and goes to a shop to restock on his supplies. A small subscene of him pulling out money, showing that he took all the valuables from his old place and liquidized them.

\- Less disciplined gang members greedily confront him, intending to steal. Trystane, already finishing his business, shifts away, as if vanishing from the gang members' point of view. He shifts multiple times to leave the ghetto, showing a slight heart rate increase to give hint to his limits. As he walks to another part of the town to shop, he overhears people commenting about a city called Magnolia's real estate was at an all-time low.

\- Trystane, now restocked, continues South. Nothing interesting happens here, so he goes to Magnolia through the train. He is not surprised from trains because there are trains in Seven.

\- Enters Magnolia and takes in the sights. Considering he doesn't have that much money, he goes to the cheapest, yet relatively safe, houses he could find, and finds a place there. He basically lives in a sturdy shack.

\- Trystane uses his magic to get to places faster, eventually being noticed by the people he often passes. They ask him to consider joining the guild. Trystane thinks, especially since his current delivery job wasn't exactly the best pay, even _with _shift magic. While he has enough to support himself, he is sick and tired of his living conditions, and would like to upsize.

\- Finally, he goes towards the guild hall, and enters.

\- Prologue ends.

Okay, depending on how many fluff scenes or description I put in, this prologue chapter can be anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 words. I personally wouldn't try to fix this whole thing in 1,000, simply because many of the scenes would feel rushed. However, after writing the chapter, if I feel that some scenes are unnecessary, I will either combine them with another scene to convey the same message/purpose, or just scrap them altogether.

All in all, this is the basic summary of how to write a prologue/intro (for those of you that haven't figured out writing an introduction is basically the same, the only categorical difference is whether or not you start before a certain plot point.)

1) Refer to your CDS, understand their backstory, motivations, likes, dislikes, and see how you can weave some of it into the P/I.

2) Decide which part of the backstory you want to explore right away, and which part you want to explore later on in the story.

3) Write in-between scenes (such as the gang member or helping people on the road), that open up some of the OC's character and magic to the audience.

4) Figure out details on how the OC ends up where they end up. Ex. Train, walking, overhearing details, their goals resulting in the final destination, etc.

Remember, writing P/I isn't supposed to be hard. If you do all the prep work, it **WILL **come easy. If you want to write a story, but you literally just write with no world building, no arc planning, no chapter notes, you will get hit by writer's block because you have no direction.

Having all the plot points built, means the only thing you have to do for writing is connecting the dots.

**Note:** For the example, Trystane has to end in Fairy Tail. For some authors, they would simply make them go there because 'reasons.' However, that speaks of laziness and incompetence. They are more focused on having their character being in Fairy Tail, with no regard to how and why.

For those of you that haven't noticed. Trystane does not know what or where Fairy Tail is. He has a limited income, and decided to go to Magnolia because he heard that the real-estate, meaning housing, would be cheap. He does manage to find a cheap and sturdy house, but he realizes that his money would run out if he doesn't find employment. Considering his magic, he found that delivery work would not only be the easiest, but likely the highest paying as well. This is because he could make cross-town deliveries in a few seconds, and likely complete an entire day's quota in less than an hour (if not less).

However, somewhere down the line, he realizes that he needs more money to get a bigger house, and proceeds to start finding better work. Eventually, he is stopped by some of the people that he passes by while working, and is told about Fairy Tail. Intrigued, Trystane goes to the guild hall.

A message to authors wanting their OC to join Fairy Tail, you don't have to make them just randomly go there with no pretense whatsoever. Writing a shitty repetitive backstory or saying they are in Fairy Tail because 'I said so,' is really just a pointless move.

Seriously if you do that, please kindly dump bleach over your computer and take a piss over it. Then go right up to it and take a deep whiff.

If the start goal is the OC in some random village, and the end goal is them joining Fairy Tail, then all you have to do is fill in the blanks. The more you fill, the easier it is to write. Also, don't fill it in a linear fashion. If you have two destinations, create more scenes and plot points like I did in the chapter progression timeline. If you have ten plot checkpoints in between the start and finish, it _will _become that much easier for you to fill in the gaps.

**WRITING IN BETWEEN IS FAR EASIER THAN WRITING AS YOU GO.**

**Focus: **What do I mean by 'Focus?' When you are changing the arcs of canon, you want to develop the main goal of the story. As in, who is the main character, what are they trying to accomplish and why they are trying to accomplish it.

While it _should _be obvious who the main character is (the OC), fatalist stories tend to make it difficult to discern. This is because a fatalist story often have the OC taking a side role making side comments, only occasionally having them take point.

If we consider the Trystane prologue, we already know that Trystane is going to be the main character (unless we kill him off like in Gurren Lagann and make Mio the main character or whatever the fuck). This is because we set him up as the main POV, meaning the whole prologue would be written in his perspective. Even _if_ the POV switches to another character, we _know _that Trystane is the MC - this is because the story started off with him, and all the characters that are introduced is the result of his journey.

Ex. If he went to the Magic Council instead to become a Rune Knight, then other Rune Knights would be the main-supporting characters.

Anyways, we know the character Focus is Trystane, but what about other focuses? As in, what the end destination of the story is, what messages is it trying to tell, what sort of end goal does Trystane have that he will eventually reach at the end?

Before that however, we must first decide what type of story this would be. For example, it could be an adventure story focusing on Trystane's end goal, it could be a fluffy centric story featuring two characters getting together, or it could be some other prompt that doesn't really focus on canon. Regardless, for this example, the goal of the story is for Trystane to find a home he can truly call home, as well as putting his past shadows to rest.

This means that other than the OC/Canon arcs, the main focus of the story would be Trystane's development as a character. The arcs that come along would just be the necessary events that would trigger such.

Now, the end goal can be a myriad of different things. For example, my own story has a simple goal, for the OC to defeat an old enemy, with multiple checkpoints he must reach to attain the necessary power to do so. A pairing story could have a relationship as the end goal. A redemption story could have character development as the end goal (such as the character turning 'good').

Now we know that Trystane's ultimate goal is to feel at home and put his past demon's to rest. This means, that when Trystane actually feels satisfied and has learned to call Fairy Tail home, as well as finding peace with whatever happened in Seven, the story would be able to end. If it were to continue, I would suggest anything after to be a sequel with different prompts and focuses.

For many OC authors, having a muddy focus will negatively affect your writing. This is because without a clear focus, the arcs that come don't have a purpose either. As in, what's the point of this arc, _OTHER_ than it just being canon. What sort of development would the OC have for this arc? The refusal of answering this question would make fatalism that much harder to avoid.

Anyways, at this point, you know how to structure a prologue, you know to put purpose into the scenes, and you know that there should be a clear focus on what the story is moving towards. Following that, there should be no confusion on who is the main character, and whose narrative the story is being told as.

All in all, FOCUS ON YOUR OC PEOPLE, TELL THE STORY OF YOUR OC, NOT CANON WITH YOUR OC. There, I have said that a million times. If you have read the above, you now know how. All it comes down to now is whether or not you actually do it.

**Scale: **For your story, you have to understand the scale of what you are writing. What I mean by scale, are things such as how large the battles would be, how many people/mages involved in larger arcs, how strong the mages would be, how much change is happening to canon, etc.

You should have a predetermined scale because it prevents what is called the **power creep.** What the power creep is, is when there is no power ceiling. The characters, scale, and numbers just continuously rise with no end in sight. A good example would be Dragon Ball, where they went from simple martial arts to Goku being able to fuck up a Universe.

Determining scale is relatively easy. For the most part, canon has already did it for you. From the beginning of canon, to the end of Alvarez, we see the continuous increase of power. However, even though it did have an end (sort of), canon itself could have easily been a victim of power creep.

How do we avoid it?

If you are planning your story to be the same scale as Alvarez - as in the characters would have strength capable of leveling mountains, etc. Then I would suggest in introducing the power ceiling early in the story. For example, you could have Gildarts show up early, and have him annihilate a mountain in a single battle.

Now, back to BNHA again, they were able to introduce a power ceiling through the fight between Noumu and All Might. Despite all the students being incapable of even approaching the two fighters, All Might throwing the Noumu straight into the stratosphere showed a level of power that all the characters are moving towards. Which means, somewhere at the end of the series, Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki, and possibly others would be able to throw around similar levels of power.

Let's say for the sake of argument, the dragon slayer OC would be capable of matching and defeating one of the Spriggan 12 in Alvarez - this would be the power ceiling. This means that throughout the dozens of arcs that would happen in between the plot beginning and plot end, each increment of power would gradually increase towards that final ceiling.

Other than power scale, what other scales can we look at? More importantly than power scaling, we have the story scale. A story scale is easy to define by the amount of people that have a stake in the plot. For example, the Phantom Lord arc had all of the Fairy Tail guild, as well as the entire city of Magnolia have stakes. In Alvarez, the entire country of Fiore (although it should have been all of Ishgar as well) had a stake in the arc. Having a larger story scale doesn't necessarily need to have every single arc greater than Alvarez. However, a greater story scale would likely explore the intricacies of the Fairy Tail world far more than it did in canon. What happens in other countries, the Rune Knights, other cities, different aspects of the world with real life parallels, all of these things could exist in your story that did not exist in canon - if your story has a greater scale.

From a very little scale, we have an OC that is basically a side character reacting to the events of canon (even if it's well-written emotionally with the character's own journeys and developments). This scale I would recommend for pairing stories or stories that are more involved with character relationships.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have chains of events happening all around the world, centering around a few characters. This is what I recommend for OC stories that are not a part of canon, and have their own personal stake in something much greater. Stories on this scale would often have arcs taking place in other parts of Earthland, and would have a far greater level of development and character inclusion than most other stories, including canon itself.

If a little-sister OC learning how to be confident is a 0, and an OC being the center of the plot (such as the case in Harry Potter) is a 10, where would we put our OC? Let's say a story on the same scale of canon is a 5.

For the forest dragon slayer OC, I would put him at a 6, or just above canon. The reason being, is that the Forest Dragon OC doesn't really have any huge plot points that follow him around (such as an entire country out for his blood). However, considering he constantly goes to far places (like Gildarts) for missions, he would likely have a network of his own enemies and contacts, enlarging the boundaries that were set in canon. This would also involve many OC arcs in between the canon arcs.

If we look at Trystane, then I would rate it as a 3.5. This is because he doesn't have the same amount of stake in canon when compared to Natsu or the other dragon slayers. Trystane wouldn't really mingle much with the main cast and is generally a loner. Not only that, despite having a past in Seven, his home country wouldn't have known he existed. His time as a gang member wouldn't have made him well known enough for rival gangs to go out of their way just to find him, especially since he didn't specifically piss any of them off before leaving.

For my own story, I would rate is as a 8.5 or possibly a 9. Despite having such a great scale, the reason I didn't put it higher is because many of the other characters have higher stakes in the main plot as well. Despite the OC being the focus of what is going on in the background (in the elevated scale as well), other characters have stakes in other plot lines that all intertwine together.

Hopefully now you have understood what power and story scale is. Although not an all-out necessity, understanding the scale of your story relative to canon can give you a boundary of what you need to world build. This would prevent you from wasting hours and hours of time world building unnecessary details that would never even be mentioned in the story.

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**Chapter 10 Done! Next Chapter: Canon Insertion: Arc Changing Part II**

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	11. CH11 - Canon Insertion: Arc Changing II

**Chapter 11 - Canon Insertion: Arc Changing Part II**

**Damn, I don't know how I keep making these humongous chapters. I know people post like 30,000-word chapters but damn, that shit is jarring as FUCK to read. **

**Anyways, enjoy!**

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**Trope Discussions discord! ****(https):/discord(.gg)/5WethAt**

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**Arc Planning: **Alright, you have your prologue planned, you have your character made, you have the end goal your character is moving towards, and now you want to create the in-between.

You now have to create the timeline of events that will occur in your story. Just like before, I would suggest NOT continuously building linearly. You should set multiple checkpoints from start to end. The gap between each checkpoint could be massive compared to the chapter progression timeline. I'm talking multiple arcs, tens of thousands of words, dozens of chapters, before you go from one checkpoint to the other - especially for stories that span all of canon and then some.

Story checkpoints: What do I mean by checkpoints? If you have a story spanning all of canon, then you likely have dozens if not more arcs. This is especially true if you have OC arcs on top of canon arcs (I hope you do because completely following canon = fatalism).

Anyways, let's say you have a story that is similar to canon, and me giving the benefit of the doubt, you are changing canon to reflect the different narratives, and especially considering another character as the main character. This means that the plot beginning would be the first chapter of Fairy Tail, and the end would be the last chapter of Fairy Tail. For the sake of argument, let's exempt the 100-year-quest from the plot.

From the start to end of Fairy Tail, I can count multiple checkpoints that you could have. These CP's would be when you need to decide whether or not to make **major **changes to the plot.

1\. Phantom Lord Arc

2\. Tenrou Arc

Now, why those three arcs?

I consider Phantom Lord to be one of the first major arcs of Fairy Tail, especially considering it is the first one of that scale. How the Phantom Lord Arc goes down could completely derail canon, or at least, add to it. For example, let's say your story has a darker tone to it, and someone _dies _in Phantom Lord. That one action alone would have changed canon, especially when it comes to character development. Additionally, depending on who committed the deed, it could result in Gajeel/Juvia not joining Fairy Tail, or have one of the other members of the Element Four join.

For Tenrou, this is actually the biggest checkpoint I would consider (even bigger than Alvarez). This is because this is their first encounter with Acnologia, as well as the whole guild being frozen in time. In my opinion, this is the biggest decision you will make when it comes to changing canon. While with other arcs, different relationships and characters could be present in Fairy Tail from smaller decisions, but regarding the seven-year time skip? It could be a completely different story after.

This is because you must decide whether or not to have the time skip take place. If you are changing canon on a greater scale, chances are, you might not have the time skip at all. This means that you will have to write what happens in between those seven years, assuming that the events would still follow the upcoming events in chronological order.

Now, these are the **canon **checkpoints. If we look at the example of Trystane again, then we can see that the beginning of the plot is the prologue, where he is on the road, and the end would be when he finally joins Fairy Tail. Instead of using the Phantom/Tenrou Arc as checkpoints. We could outline major points of development for his character as well.

For example, let's say Trystane makes a breakthrough for his magic somewhere around the Oracion Seis Arc (or at least when it's supposed to take place). This would be a good checkpoint to build the other arcs towards, magic wise. In another event, Trystane could have a realization of what it means to have a home; that could be a checkpoint as well.

For those of you writing stories spanning canon or more, there is a _**MOTHERFUCKING SHITTON OF WORK OH MAN JESUS RAVIOLI IN A 1 GALLON BUCKET. **_I can understand if many of you prefer to write fatalist stories, considering the countless hours and words you have to spend world/story/character building to write a compelling and relatable story.

The amount of planning that goes into each arc, chaining each event into the future arcs, foreshadowing, creating new compelling characters, determining character development for all of the main cast is monumental. Some of you might be mind boggled on what you have to do. In fact, it would take tens of thousands of words just to create an example. Instead of doing that however, I will go through the process I personally use to arc build. For you, this will involve trial and error. You might find that my personal process might not work (at least no completely in every aspect); this means that you will have to change things up to make it easier for yourself.

Anyways, I will use a simple dragon slayer OC story in my example.

Say you have your CDS ready. You know your character inside and out; you know their spells, abilities, how strong they are, and how strong they will get in future arcs. Now you just need to plan out the arcs themselves.

Checkpoints:

1) Plot start

2) Canon start

3) Phantom Arc - I won't be building further than this as by then you should have a good idea of the process.

First, I am going to decide where to start the story; while many may opt to start in canon, I will start the story four years before canon. Four is just an arbitrary number, it could easily be one, eight or whatever the fuck years. Let's say the OC is a 2nd generation dragon slayer, meaning they will have no dragon parent. The lacrima was implanted into them as a teenager, so the dragon slayer magic would not be their only source of magic. For ease of reference, the OC will have forest dragon slayer magic, accompanied by green magic - similar to how Laxus uses lightning manipulation magic on top of his lightning dragon slayer. This means the OC will be capable of manipulating nature to a great scale, as well as have the intricate control needed to create more 'ammo.'

The story starts with the OC living in their house, a relatively normal one made of stone. At this point, the OC is already in Fairy Tail. How the OC joined Fairy Tail isn't anything spectacular, they were simply trekking around and found their way there. The actual scene would be written later on, but not as a full flash back arc, just a quick one.

Four years before canon, the OC is fifteen, making him around the main casts' age.

A question we have to ask ourselves is if anything important happens within those four years. If yes, then that would be a good start for an introductory OC arc. If not, then the whole four years can be skipped through some simple mission chapters or guild interactions.

**IMPORTANT NOTE: **If you put your character data sheet as the first chapter of the story, then please go to the nearest Church you can, go on your knees, and pray to Jesus that I don't find you.

1) Introductory Arc: The OC, having recently joined, is interacting with the other guild members. Most are friendly, though some are cold towards them, such as Laxus. They are strong enough to hold their own against the guild's S-Class in a forest, where the OC excels. However, the OC's fighting ability is lower outside of their zone (let's say 30-50% in terms of power).

\- In this arc, the OC goes on a mission with some of the other guild members.

\- Relationships between the characters will be revealed in this chapter.

\- When the mission involves fighting, how the OC fights and uses their magic will be revealed.

\- OC completes the mission, gaining some of the other members' trust and respect.

This is a relatively simple arc. I basically go through the main goals of each arc, such as revealing magic or relationships. Any changes that I want to have for the character would be in the notes as well. Once I have the goals of the arc completed, then I will start adding in the details; as in, what specific scenes happen to achieve this, who are the guild members that join him, etc.

A simple way to do this is to imagine yourself reading each scene. Any blanks that you think needs to be filled in the story should be included in the notes. Also, if you have considerably low standards for a story then just write whatever but don't complain when people start criticizing it.

Once the introductory arc is over, we can assume that nothing important happens, meaning there is no need to write scenes in between the four years. We can either gradually time skip with a series of smaller scenes or go straight to canon/near canon.

2) Canon start: The OC is now fully ingrained in Fairy Tail culture. Considering the OC is a **SEPARATE FUCKING ENTITY**, he (fuck it, it's too annoying to use gender-neutral terms) will not be following Natsu wherever he goes. This means that when Lucy joins, he could either be on another mission, away from the guild, or just chilling at the guild hall.

There is no need to rewrite Episode 1, therefore the OC will be on a mission. He will return later to realize there is a new member, and the events of Duke Everlue, Mount Hakobe, and other small arcs would be told to him through a couple sentences.

\- OC has just returned from a elimination mission outside of Fiore - not an S-class job as the OC getting S-Class constitutes as an event important enough to write about.

\- OC has a brief interaction with Laxus, revealing a mutual dislike. However, Laxus is still stronger than the OC - even in a Forest.

\- A few fluff scenes of interaction between the guild members to show his relationship with many if not most of the main members.

\- Time skip to Galuna.

At this point, we have to decide something for the plot. Will the OC be a part of Galuna? If he is, what sort of differences would he make to Galuna? What sort of differences CAN he make? Is there even a point to changing Galuna? In my opinion, Galuna itself isn't that important of an arc for the OC. It is mainly Gray's arc, meaning that the OC really has no business being there.

This is especially true as the OC is a separate entity from Natsu. At this time, the OC is doing another quest. For the sake of something interesting, let's say he has a tussle with members of a dark guild they will have to fight in the future.

\- OC finds out Natsu stole the Galuna quest, he laughs it off and says he will be fine - how he reacts to this will be important to how he sees Natsu. In this case, a tenacious bastard that won't give up no matter what.

\- OC goes off on a mission investigating some dark mage activity in the South West.

\- He will encounter Grimoire Heart mages - specifically Zancrow. Being the good guy the he is, the OC engages him in combat to stop whatever he's doing.

\- During the fight, the OC finds out that the dark guild is gearing up for an attack at Tenrou (Zancrow arrogantly blurting it out).

\- They are fighting in a forest, so the OC will be at his strongest. However, fire counters plants/wood so they essentially are on even ground. Eventually the commotion causes an order for Zancrow to return, ending the fight.

\- OC goes back, finding out his guild has attacked Phantom Lord in retaliation. He has to wait for the Master to recover from the ambush before telling him GH's plans.

Okay, what I did as an example here has already changed canon (specifically Tenrou). This means realistically, the master would either host the S-Class exams somewhere else for safety, or he would come prepared with defense plans. Of course, considering that they don't know much of Grimoire Heart's capabilities (other than what Zancrow blurted out), he will not be able to formulate a complete counter.

They don't know when they are going to attack (just soon), therefore the master would change the plans of the S-Class exams, while putting eyes on Tenrou so they can intercept Grimoire Heart.

Now, if they intercept GH, this means Fairy Tail would have a strike team that are prepared to fight dark mages. Whether or not Laxus returns is up to the author. For me though, I will have Freed contact Laxus about defending Tenrou, in which Laxus answers the call - at this point already at the end of his healing journey. The master would scold him of course, but I think ultimately, he would allow him to come.

If Tenrou is being monitored, that means one day, the master would receive news that they are on his way. In this case, Fairy Tail would receive a distinct advantage, perhaps even getting an airship for faster transport (if those exist in quantity). They would have the first strike, as well as a coordinated offense/defense to deal with the Grimoire Heart members.

Assuming they win, and fights go more evenly (without bullshit powerups), they should be in a better position than before once it's done.

Now, if Fairy Tail manages to intercept Grimoire Heart out in open sea, they could have a fight that's not on Tenrou. If they did fight on Tenrou, there's a good chance they would be engaging on the shores. THIS MEANS THAT, there is a good chance they would not have the chance to encounter Zeref, especially if all the Fairy Tail mages engage the GH mages, preventing them from moving in further into the island.

Why is this important you may ask?

If Zeref doesn't openly show his magic due to GH's interfere, then that means NO ACNOLOGIA. No Acnologia? Which means no seven-year time skip. If there is no seven-year time skip, that means you have to write OC arcs or accelerate the timeline to fit this change.

I could go on and on and on and it wouldn't even be 1% of the total number of changes and notes you need.

Understandably, many of you would probably get turned off at the prospect of doing that much work for something that you do on your free time. I get it, some of you just do this for entertainment and just write whatever comes to mind. However, for those of you that truly wish to create art that you yourself have envisioned, then this is what you must do, for _**every single ARC. **_

Every decision your character makes, you have to reasonably, within the confines of canon/headcanon, create a ripple effect that echoes into future arcs. Your characters' decisions will affect the decisions of others, changing decisions that were made in canon. Not only that, having extra OC's or OC arcs would also add to the narrative, changing canon even further.

For the example that I did on the Grimoire Heart/Tenrou Arc, that would just be the barebones of what is needed. Sure, there is a chain of events that led to a different outcome, but what are the details? What are the exact things that caused these decisions? What are the scenes that led to these decisions? There could be hundreds of thousands of words required in both world building and arc planning before you answer these questions for a dozen arcs.

My advice to you, is read what I said above. Use the process that I used and **EXPAND. **Do as many freaking notes as possible on it. Understand why you need to do the things you do, how you do the things you do, and write plausible scenes, within already defined limits, to accomplish this.

Will it be the most difficult thing you have ever done in a story? Yes, it will be_. That _is exactly why you have to do it. If you want to write a compelling story filled with themes and relatable characters, you just have to plan it out.

Tl:dr - **DON'T BE A LAZY FUCK. IF YOU ARE, DON'T CRY WHEN YOUR STORY GETS SHIT ON.**

**Arc Importance: **A shorter subsection, arc importance is a way to categorize what parts of canon you _should _change, and others you should leave relatively untouched. By untouched, I don't mean fatalist, I mean it in the scale of whether or not the arc is even taking place. If you add some more layers to the arc, and basically make it far more engaging then canon (adding backstories and the like), then I would call it 'relatively untouched.'

Anyways, out of all the canon arcs, you have to decide which ones are going to have a direct relationship with your character. For example, we could have an OC in Grimoire Heart that only meets Fairy Tail in the Tenrou Arc - the plot might start just before. We could also have an OC in Sabertooth, prompting the plot to start somewhere around the GMG.

Depending on the circumstances of your OC, they might show up for some of the canon arcs, or even very few. You should never have your OC show up for ALL of them.

Hey, I get it, it's much easier to write a story when you can have the manga open and describe each panel in detail. But come on guys, you guys really have so much time in your lives that you would spend hours just to regurgitate canon? Think on that.

Anyways, let's go back Forest Dragon Slayer OC example. From the arc notes that were already made for him, he wouldn't be present for any of the canon arcs until the Phantom Arc. Not only that, he wouldn't be there for the whole arc either. He would return to the guild before the final confrontation. No, he would not be returning just at the perfect moment to steal Erza's spotlight at blocking Jupiter - seriously, **BIG FUCKING RED FLAG HOLY ROTTEN MCDONALDS CHICKEN NUGGETS. **

In terms of Arc Importance, the Phantom Lord Arc would be important to your story. This is because the OC is present, and likely will be part of some scene/event that triggers plot development, or some sort of divergence. How the divergence comes to play, I will mention more in following sections.

Remember, this subcategory is only to decide whether or not an arc is important enough to the OC's PERSONAL STORYLINE for him to be present in. For another example, the Tower of Heaven Arc is mainly with Team Natsu. If the OC has no importance or importance there, then have him do something else during that time. The Festival Arc though? This would concern everyone in Fairy Tail, so more likely than not, the OC would be a part of it.

I will get into what he is doing in between those arcs later in 'Original Arcs.'

Regardless, this is where I am going to conclude this section. All in all, if your OC has some sort of stake in the arc (and not just being there for the sake of being there), then that would be an important arc for the OC to be in. If the OC has no other reason to be present (such as him asking to come to Akane Resort for no reason other than to be a part of the Tower of Heaven Arc), then have him do something else.

**Canon Arcs: **This section is brought to you by: CORN MUFFINS! *Applause* *Cheer* *Distant booing of OC Harem authors*

'For canon arcs: "Did you know: when you make a canon arc play out the exact same way, another hectare-acre of the Amazon Rainforest burns to the ground? You're killing the environment! YOU are to blame for it! Do your part, build a fucking arc that Moses would be proud of.'

\- Corn Muffins, 2019.

Thanks CM.

Hopefully by this point, you will have a decent idea on how to plan out story arcs as well as the progression of each chapter.

This subcategory, Canon Arcs, is going to be about how to change canon arcs that will include your OC - where the previous subcategory is about whether or not to include them.

In the Phantom Lord arc, all of the characters on one side is already facing on the other. Which means if you want to include your OC in the battle, either he has to be doing something else, or he would have to steal someone else's fights - this is if you are just adding an OC without planning.

The question is, how do we add a character to a canon arc, **AND **make it a meaningful one? How do we change canon without spotlight stealing, undermining other characters' accomplishments with 2 on 1's, or even doing the shit-fix of adding some random OC and doing something retarded such as making the Element Four the Element Five?

**Note:** That's what I like to call Tier 2 canon changing. Tier 1 is basically spotlighting stealing and side commentating, while Tier 2 is adding an OC just to fight your OC - this is still fatalism, you're just making 8 = 8 into 8 + 1 = 8 + 1.

How do we go above this? How do we elevate ourselves beyond Tier 1 and Tier 2, and ascend into the realm of Tier 3? Tier 3 being a completely reshaped arc that makes your OC's presence both meaningful and necessary.

From this point on, I will attempt to completely rebuild the Phantom Lord Arc, changing details and possibly even adding/removing events while changing the scale as well - I have already made my own Phantom Arc in my original story, I would be taking SOME of the ideas there but not all. No spoilers :)

I will also be using the same format I use for building larger arcs (other than just a collection of notes for smaller arcs). Also, I will be raising the scale of the arc. Assume that there is no previous arcs that foreshadow into PL, it is a standalone that may or may not affect future arcs.

**[Phantom Lord Arc Start]**

**Arc Description: **For this arc, the changes would not be as major as my own story. However, there would be still be differences in order of events. This means that, the fights that occur in canon would likely not occur. The way Jose attacks the guild would be slightly different.

**Motivation:** One of the issues with FT villains is that their motivation is often dry or shallow. Jose's unclear yet seemingly petty reason for attacking Fairy Tail wasn't impactful. For the sake of this arc, I'll add something simple.

When Jose was a young mage, there was a monster attack in his hometown. He rushed to protect it, fearing the worst. However, some Fairy Tail mages were also there. Being the destructive guild they are, they basically lay waste to Jose's hometown; his childhood home, schools, sentimental areas, all blown to bits. Not only that, but he finds out some of the people he used to know suffered as casualties. Angered, Jose confronts the FT mages but is basically waved off, with the most they are willing to do is give some money to help on the rebuilding process.

Jose doesn't 0-100 here; however, the seed of hatred is set. This will fester for the however many decades it takes to reach canon. His contempt grows greater and greater until he decides to take action and start his plan.

**Phantom Lord's Strength: **This is the manpower, commanders, and weapons that Phantom Lord has when invading Magnolia.

**Jose:** Being the Guildmaster of Phantom Lord, he is naturally going to be the strongest piece in his own game. He is the only one capable of contending with Makarov, even if he's not quite there yet. The only mages in Fairy Tail that can best him is Laxus, Makarov, and Gildarts.

**Element 4: **Considered S-Class in Phantom's standards; however, they are basically fodder compared to Fairy Tail's S-Class, as they are defeated by Fairy Tail's non-S-rank mages.

**Gajeel: **The ace of Phantom Lord's main branch; despite being S-Class mage in Phantom's standards, he will not be able to stand up to Fairy Tail's own S-Class mages at full strength.

**Heads of other branches:** Considering that Phantom Lord has many branches, or basically a separate guild acting under Phantom Lord's name, there would be pseudo 'Guildmaster' that would hold equal or greater strength compared to the S-Class of Phantom's main branch.

**Notable Mages (outside of canon mages): **Not just the heads of other branches, there would be individual mages with specific talents that would make them ideal in combat. These mages are not necessarily in positions of power, as they are much more suited to act as field agents.

Mage 1: Jose's 'spymaster.' Capable of using stealth magic and transformation magic to an astonishing degree. Most if not all mages without some sort of detection skill/magic would be fooled (at least for the short-term).

Mage 2: One of the aces of a bigger branch, has power exceeding the Element four instead of close-ranged combat.

**Note**: I could add more here depending on what I am trying to do. However, considering the degree of canon changes is a 6, just two would be enough for this example.

**Fodder:** Jose's fodder mages are there to man the moving guild. They serve no purpose other than acting as grunts to keep the massive machine working. All of the combat will be done by Phantom's elites.

**Fairy Tail's Strength:** This is the strength, manpower, and weapons that Fairy Tail has in the defense of Magnolia.

**Makarov: **Makarov, being the Guildmaster, basically has strength considerably greater than everyone else present. Makarov can likely solo all of Phantom Lord by himself if not for Jose's original plan.

**S-Class Mages: **Erza Scarlet and Mirajane Strauss. These are the only two mages present with strength capable of resisting Jose, even if only a little. Considering the raised power level of Phantom Lord (realistically they should be this strong too considering they _do _have multiple branches throughout Fiore and possibly other countries), Mirajane will have to awaken her power due to a necessity.

**Main Mages: **Natsu, Gray, Cana, Elfman, etc. Mages that would be B to A Rank would be factored into the battle.

**Secondary Mages: **Mages such as Nab, Warren, Reedus, etc. These mages generally don't have the firepower necessary to compete with the main mages. They might have their own talents, but they are basically fodder in the grand scheme of the battle.

**Order of Events:** This is the things that would happen during the arc, in chronological order.

The OC, being away in the beginning of the Phantom Fight, returns to see the guild hall trashed. Surprised, he goes in and finds the others. He tries to find the master, only to be told that he is out of commission and is recovering in Polyruschia's shack.

The OC is briefed on what's happening (whether or not there is a scene for this would be decided in the chapter progression) and begins to prepare the battleground by growing plants all around the guild area. He asks Droy to assist him due to their similar magics.

The Fairy Tail guild hall is basically covered in vines and plants; the OC has successfully created a make-shift defense against another attack.

A couple hours after the OC returns, Jose's guild hall is spotted on the horizon, all while Jose's branch heads are attacking the guild from a small fleet of mini airships.

The OC smells something wrong with one of the members; deciding to investigate, he reveals that Lucy (who was still in the guild hall at this time), was not who she seemed to be. He forces 'Lucy' to drop her disguise, revealing Phantom's spymaster underneath. The OC, being a dragon slayer, uses his senses and magic to track the mage down, before capturing him with the vines set around the guild hall.

Due to the OC's makeshift defenses, the guild opts to remain inside the guildhall and defend it from there, instead of on the rocky cliff. However, Jose still fires the Jupiter Canon. Erza is the only one that can fully block the cannon; however, instead of everyone just watching and being useless, they all contribute their own spells to take some stress away from Erza's shoulders. The first Jupiter cannon shot is blocked without anyone taking injury.

Considering this time, there are airships attacking as well, Natsu is sent to the sky considering he has the ability to reach them through happy. Natsu will bring down the ships, forcing the branch heads inside to fight in the water/on the ground.

The branch heads and their top underlings directly engage the Fairy Tail mages. The element four is still remaining to defend the robot. Gajeel, being the impatient man he is, leaves the robot to fight. Jose doesn't stop him, even though he wanted his top five to stay on the guild hall.

Branch heads are now directly engaging the Fairy Tail members. At this point, Jose has yet to make a move (no shadow soldiers yet. The branch heads, being briefed on all the abilities of the Fairy Tail members, quickly begins to overwhelm them. Erza, having some of her magic drained, fights mage 2, who is arguably the best close-combat fighter other than Jose in Phantom Lord. The two have an even duel.

At this point everyone is fighting someone; Gajeel is now engaging whichever Fairy Tail member he sees and Natsu is still fighting the other branch heads. It is basically a massive team brawl with the exception of Erza and Mage 2.

Jose, losing patience, sends his giant black eyeball minion to attack the guild. The OC seeing this, directly engages the minion, using all of his tricks to repel him.

The OC successfully beats back the black minion, impressing Jose a bit.

At this point, the Fairy Tail mages are beginning to beat back the early ground forces, although mages on both sides are being beat out of commission - several branch heads, Alzack, Bisca, Macao, and Elfman are all unable to fight. The Jupiter Cannon is recharged, and he confidently says he's going to fire. Jose knows his men would get out of the way, but the Fairy Tail members won't because he is aiming directly at the guild hall.

Another shot, this time, the OC uses a secret art, aiming low, to take the brunt of the blast. However, he is aided by Natsu with his own secret art, who just defeated his own opponents. The two dragon slayers managed to deflect the blast toward the sky, although both are now low on magic.

Gajeel finally makes his way to the two dragon slayers, all with Macao and Wakaba on the ground close to him, showing his victory. Gajeel is still in relatively good shape, which means the two dragon slayers will have to fight together. They do so for a few moments, managing to fight on equal grounds.

The OC realizes if they continue, another shot of the Jupiter Cannon would arrive, which means they have to take it out. Thankfully, Erza manages to defeat Mage 2, although heavily injured herself.

Mirajane, being unable to fight, remains in the guild hall infirmary to take care of the injured. Finally, Elfman is brought in, heavily maimed and injured from his fight against the spymaster that escaped during the commotion. He was able to tank most of the damage defending the injured until Alzack managed to snipe the spymaster, before being taken out himself. This is the catalyst for her to be able to use Satan Soul again.

While Gajeel is being kept busy by the dragon slayers, the remaining ground forces form a plan to enter the Phantom Guild hall. Gajeel, seeing this happening, proceeds to fight at max power, beating back the first few attempts to get past him.

Gajeel arrogantly challenges the entire remaining guild, before using a secret art to sweep all of them. The tired mages are caught by surprise, but the OC manages to use his vines to create a defense. Gajeel's metal sword slices through the defense easily. It closes in on the others before blocked by Erza.

Erza says to the guild to bring the fight to Phantom Lord, and she will take care of Gajeel. Natsu objects of course, before being persuaded to trust in her. The remaining mages (except Erza), all storm the guild as a group.

Gray, Natsu, Cana, and a few others encounter Totomaru alone. He is easily taken down by the group, allowing them to destroy the Jupiter cannon. The other element four realizes what has happened and converges together on the attacking group. They have no time to active abyss break at this point.

Sol, Aria, and Juvia manages to cut the mages off, being the last obstacle to get through before Jose. The 3v3+ start out relatively evenly. With Sol playing the front-line fighter, Aria the ranged damage, and Juvia being the mid-ranged fighter. Natsu and Gray fight on the front lines while Cana plays support from the back - the fodder mages that follow are taken out relatively quickly by AOE moves.

The fight is even, until a clang is heard on the floor.

A heavily injured Gajeel walks in through the room, throwing an unconscious Erza in front of the Fairy Tail members. The Fairy Tail members are losing morale, before being beat back by the Phantom Mages. However, the help they need comes in the form of a single blast of magic, hitting Aria by surprise, knocking him out.

Mirajane flies in through the hole she made in her Satan Soul form. With her presence, the tide of battle turns and the rest of the Phantom Mages are defeated.

The Fairy Tail group, now only Natsu, Gray, and Mirajane advance towards Jose, who reveals he has Lucy captive.

Jose, still being full strength, waits for the Fairy Tail mages in his room. He congratulates them for making it this far, before overwhelming them.

The rest of the Fairy Tail mages are defeated by Jose, before he personally walks out of his own guild hall (taking Lucy with him), past all the scenes of battle, and in front of Magnolia. He monologues about how no one is left to stop him, and that it's all Lucy's fault that this happened - how they all tried to protect her but are all going to die for it.

Jose is about to destroy the guild hall and kill everyone resting inside. At this point, Makarov finally arrives, deflecting the blast meant for the guild hall. Jose arrogantly monologues again, before challenging Makarov.

The two begin fighting, but not before Makarov angrily throws Jose into the water, away from the rest of Fairy Tail. Jose, angered, summons his most powerful shade minions, three ginormous shadow beasts that carry him out of the water. Makarov uses his titan form and begins a beat down of epic proportions. Makarov defeats all of Jose's minions with some effort, before focusing on Jose. Jose arrogantly charges, before taking a giant fist to the face, injuring him severely.

Jose, now desperate, uses thousands of shade minions to target the members of Fairy Tail, attempting to kill all of them before he is defeated. At this point, Makarov is forced to use Fairy Law, defeating Jose and all the shade minions once and for all.

**Aftermath: **Once Jose is defeated, the Fairy Tail members begin rebuilding. Jose is arrested by the magic council. Gajeel and Juvia join just like Canon, both being invited by Makarov.

**[Phantom Lord Arc End]**

If you guys want to see an example of a _written _Phantom Lord Arc that actually changed it, look at **Muggle Among Mages **by** Phantom Galaxy.** I don't think I have ever seen a story change expand a canon arc to that extent. Despite the timeline being relatively unchanged, the amount of detail and scaling that was added to that arc made it feel that much more impactful, especially considering that Jose as a villain wasn't all that interesting in canon.

**Note:** This is actually considered relatively short for an arc. For the longer arcs, I would actually separate into multiple acts, in which they are basically mini arcs that are all grouped into one big arc. Alvarez would be an arc big enough to group into multiple arcs.

In this example of changing a canon arc, it's to change around the details while keeping some of the main plot points. Ex. Makarov showing up, Jupiter cannon firing, etc. The changes I made makes a different Phantom Lord Arc, especially one that makes the OC seem just as important as the other characters.

If you are planning to make a timeline that is relatively similar to canon (canon divergent/expansion), but with some details changed, then I would suggest doing this for the canon arcs you plan on writing. If you are going to have your OC be in a canon arc with ZERO changes at all, you are better off not even having the OC in the arc and just have them do something else (such as the mission where the OC fought Zancrow).

Hopefully by reading that example of arc notes, you will have a good idea on how to change canon for yourself. This should be easy, because you aren't changing the destination, just the process of getting there. This makes it more interesting to read then the same goddamned thing every time. However, if you ARE changing the destination, such as if you have Gajeel become the new Phantom Guildmaster instead, then that would be multiple times harder.

**Original Arcs: **Unlike canon, the story of your character likely wouldn't line up perfectly. This means that, when certain canon events happen, your character is likely off doing something else: on a mission, just chilling, going through other events that further their own development, etc.

OC arcs, in my opinion, are just as hard to do properly as canon arcs. While canon arcs require a more in-depth understanding of canon characters and rules set by the Fairy Tail universe, OC arcs require more world building and general competence to make it a compelling arc.

For example, without any sort of writing skill, the OC arc could end up becoming a mash ups of overused tropes loosely joined to create a storyline. Remember, everything has a purpose. If you don't decide what that purpose is, and instead just create yet another dragon slayer OC to fight against your own dragon slayer OC, just for your OC to win in a Nakama-powered one-shot, then what's the fucking point?

Anyways, before we start thinking of whatever the fuck, we have to decide: where and when are we going to put an OC arc? Remember, arcs don't have to be some full dark guild, 100,000-word arc. It could be as something simple as the OC trying to buy an item that is sold out in Magnolia. You could easily put mini-fluff arcs in between just as much you fit in larger OC arcs in between canon arcs.

Remember back at the arc importance section? If you have determined a list of canon arcs where the OC doesn't need to be present, then that would be a good place to put an OC arc. Of course, if you _**are **_building an OC arc, you need to have a purpose. What I mean by purpose, is if the OC arc is setting something up for the future, giving character/magic development to the OC, or perhaps expanding on some details through world building.

Let's go back to the example of the OC Dragon Slayer. What would be the purpose/importance of that OC solo mission arc where he fights Zancrow? Sure, you could say that it's introducing Grimoire Heart early, but why? Why are they being introduced early?

Remember what we discussed earlier about changing Tenrou as well as the possibility of not having a 7-year time skip? The main purpose of that arc is to set up the change. After all, changing canon is more believable when you use a decision to spark a chain of events that led to the change. You know what this is called? Build up. As in, something happened, building up the next thing, then the next thing, then continuously building on top of each other until it creates an event different from canon.

Randomly skipping from Point A to Point B without considering anything in between will give you plot inconsistencies. Therefore, a note to remember would be to consider the domino effect. If you are planning to change parts of canon that is still far away (and a** large **change), then use a series of smaller changes to lead up to the big change. This will make your story smoother, more compelling, and more reasonable.

Anyways, continuing with building OC arcs. Now that we have decided where to put OC arcs for our story (at least 3-4 arcs in advance), we have to start building that particular arc. Just like before, I will use the same layout for the arc notes. Some of the sections won't be used (such as battle strength), because there aren't any military-type engagements.

**Arc Description:** In this arc, the OC dragon slayer will be taking a mission to Minstrel, which is separate from Fiore with a small body of water - let's say it's about twice as large as the English Channel.

This arc takes place when Galuna Arc happens in canon, and it will happen from Galuna to a bit into the Phantom Lord Arc - assuming Galuna takes maybe 2-3 days in total (with travel time to the island included).

The OC will be travelling by airship, as without the speed it would take too long, and it isn't realistic to only be on Minstrel for a few hours then leaving right after.

The mission is to investigate and remove dark guild activity.

**Order of Events: **After Natsu goes to Galuna, the OC decides to take a relatively difficult job (just under S-rank). The details are to investigate dark guild activity, with bonus rewards for taking out whatever is there.

OC takes a quick airship to go to Minstrel, arriving to the destination in a couple hours - in this example universe, airships would basically be our world's planes. You need airfields for it to work properly (no helicopters or shit like that).

After arriving, the OC meets the client and he describes a certain area where he wanted mages to look at.

The OC gets information from the client, before continuing.

OC treks into an abandoned ruin, which would more than likely, be a hiding place for dark mages. The OC, being a non-Natsu copy, decides to use subtlety and sneak in. There are a few people that he encounters, and the ruins were actually busy in certain areas - similar to a black market.

The OC notes that the client likely knows of this particular area and is probably looking for something out of the norm - something that has only recently changed. At this point, the OC asks around, looking for people that looked like they have been in the area for a long time (people who don't stick out basically).

He asks a shopkeeper, who is on guard due to him never seeing the OC before. The OC doesn't directly ask but pretends to be a harmless visitor. The shopkeeper reveals that there was a blonde man walking down earlier that stuck out like a sore thumb. Not only that, but he was immensely strong as he easily disposed of known gang members here without the slightest effort - notes that the mage was a user of fire magic.

The OC tracks him down through a series of hints, eventually finding the blonde man in a secluded corner, talking on a Lacrima. The OC waits for him to finish talking, eavesdropping on their conversation.

OC manages to see the guild mark on the person's chest, identifying him as part of Grimoire Heart. OC realizes the threat of this man. He continues to eavesdrop, overhearing words such as Zeref, Hades, and some of their plans - OC, being a dragon slayer, has enhanced hearing, therefore it is easy for him to eavesdrop. OC finds out that Grimoire Heart was here to extract information from a contact about Zeref 'keys.'

Zancrow finishes the conversation, before revealing he was well aware of the OC the moment he started eavesdropping, insulting him for his lack of stealth skills. Zancrow arrogantly mentions that he is going to kill him. OC, being unprepared, takes the first hit as Zancrow rushes him.

The two begin fighter, before eventually learning that they are Dragon/God Slayers respectively. Zancrow openly mocks him of course before the OC continues the fight. Zancrow finds out OC is from Fairy Tail, and blurts out some of their plans about Tenrou. The OC, knowing of the island, recognizes the importance of returning to deliver a warning. At this moment on, the OC begins to retreat throughout the town, only to be chased by Zancrow, who indiscriminately destroys a path through the ruins.

The OC manages to lead Zancrow to a more forested area after sustaining some burns. The OC, now being in his zone, is now capable of fighting on even ground with Zancrow. The two continue to fight, before their battle of moving trees and giant explosions attract attention of stronger people. At this point, the OC makes the decision to retreat. Zancrow, chases him; however, he is slowed down by other mages. He successfully beats them, but then is called by Ultear, who is still waiting for him to return to the airship.

Zancrow explains that he met the OC but is ordered to return as the chase would actually bring them more disadvantage. Hades orders to take the loss of information and move on - slightly changing their plans.

**Aftermath: **The OC returns to the guild, injured. He finds his guildhall attacked and that the master is nowhere to be found. After this part, the arc notes for Phantom Lord will be in effect.

**Arc Timeline: **For those of you that read up to there, you probably realized there are multiple tiers of arc notes. The Arc Timeline is the broadest version of it. For your story, the arc notes would look something like this.

Arc Timeline - Arc notes - Chapter Progression Timeline.

Think of this as a tree diagram, where there are dozens if not more branches from every tier into the next. Meaning, for a full canon-spanning story, you would have over a hundred-chapter progression timelines.

What is the importance of the Arc Timeline? While I suggest building your arc notes several arcs in advance, the AT allows you to put important plot points that are going to happen regardless of what happens in between. Ex. Someone dies or learns some secret magic. Then, you would write your arc notes that bridge the gap between the important plot points. Then, you would write a CPT to bridge the individual arc notes.

On a side note, the chapter progression timeline can be done chapter by chapter. The reason of this, is because the CPT is an outline of the scenes that will happen each chapter. What happens and why should all be completed in your arc notes and arc timeline before you start the CPT.

Now, why should you plan arcs in advance? It is especially important when you are chaining certain arcs together. Ex. Arc A's events lead to Arc B, then Arc B creates a set up for Arc D, then Arc C is a more fluff/setup arc that introduces a skill necessary for Arc D. Building your arcs in advance makes continuity a lot easier - seriously guys it's not hard to not have gaping plot holes. Small plot holes, yes. **GAPING, **no.

If we look at the OC Arc from the Dragon Slayer example again, we can see that the main significance is the reveal of Grimoire Heart's existence and plans earlier than canon. Through the OC's actions, Fairy Tail gets knowledge they wouldn't have known, thus changing canon. If I were to put this on the Arc Timeline, it would be as a note like this.

\- Fairy Tail knows of Grimoire Heart's plan from OC, they will formulate a defense/strike force to combat GH on their own terms.

This is a loose note. Not only that, considering that Tenrou arc will occur maybe 6+ arcs into the future, it might be likely the details would change as well. This note is helpful as it allows you to remember what sort of changes you are making, making it easier to keep yourself on track when you are writing the arcs in between. Ex. You want to write something in Oracion Seis that could end up changing the Tenrou Arc further.

**Conclusion: **Anyways, what is the point of these two chapters? It is to, hopefully, root out the issue of fatalism. I refuse to believe that every single author that writes fatalist stories are indefinitely ignorant and incompetent. I believe that most people have it in them to write a compelling story, they simply don't know the steps, and is simply writing what they know (basically other Fanfiction they read). This starts a vicious cycle of regurgitation that sets a low standard to new writers coming in.

By reading these two chapters, you will know the various processes and techniques that will help you write a compelling story. I can't be there to brainstorm every idea for you, but I CAN give you the questions you need to ask to fill the gaps.

Good Luck writing everyone :)

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**Chapter 11 Done! Next Chapter: Canon Insertion: Relationships! **

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	12. CH12 - Canon Insertion: Relationships I

**Chapter 12 - Canon Insertion: Relationships Part I**

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**Introduction: **All right, Relationships! This entire chapter will be dedicated on how to _**NOT **_make your OC a **blackhole sue.** For those of you that don't know what that is, a **blackhole sue** is a character that has EVERYONE revolving around them. Stories with BHS' often define characters (such as Erza or Gray) from their relationships with the sue, instead of being a separate entity.

How do we prevent our character from being the center of absolutely everything, while _still _being the main character? Some of you might be completely stumped on how to answer that. The place where I shall begin, is with what I like to call: Individual character arcs.

**Individual Character Arcs: **Originally, I was planning to put this in CH11; however, after thinking more about the contents, it would fit in this chapter more.

What exactly is an individual character arc? The ICA is the series of events for a **SINGLE **character. All the development, struggles, power-ups, of _one._ A story does not need to focus solely on the events of one character, therefore you can have multiple ICA's in the same story. While some stories focus on a single character, where the ICA takes up a majority of the entire story. Stories with a larger scale may have multiple ICA's. The plot, having its beginning, middle, and end, would include multiple characters that could become the focus at different points in time.

For example, if we look at Game of Thrones, how do we tell who is the 'main' character. While it's true that Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen had the biggest stake in the show, we also have the focus shifting to other characters such as Theon, Sansa, and Arya. Personally, I am a fan of storytelling like this. You have characters that have more stake in the events than others, but you have the ICA's so intertwined that you cannot remove a single character otherwise you would change the whole story.

In short, I like and write my own stories with many intersecting character lines that all lead up to the final events, even if some characters have more focus than the others.

Now, I'm sure many of you know of stories that switch between POV's (First-person switching? **Yuck**). While doing this isn't story breaking, it is important to pace properly. This is because switching POV's multiple times every chapter just to have different character arcs occurring side by side will become jarring to read. The main reason of this is because when you have multiple POV's in the same chapter, you don't really have much story advancement despite the number of events happening. Instead of having 10 points for one-character arc, you end up having 2 points for 5 different character arcs. Of course, people have different standards and it depends on how long the chapter is.

If you are someone that writes 20,000-word chapters, then you can easily fit 5-6 POV's in there to advance their story arcs while still having enough events to advance the story. However, if each of your chapters are 5,000 words long, then I would suggest writing just one or two POV's **MAX. **Me personally? I would keep writing the same POV until I reach a checkpoint I created in the arc.

**Note:** You don't have to keep EVERY POV switch more than 5,000 words. Those numbers are more of a guideline as well as what I am **personally **comfortable with. If you have a story checkpoint that can be reached within 600 words, then you can just leave it at that. Would you want to put ten of those in a chapter? I would say no. Keep the POV switches to a maximum of 5. If you are going to do 5 or more, consider making some POV's take precedence then others, and have the lesser POV's act as intermittent setup scenes.

Ex. A single line that shows a character successfully completing his mission - this can be done in less than a hundred words.

Now when it comes to POV switching, I wouldn't cut off mid-battle in one POV just to write another POV. I would finish that battle from start to finish THEN, and **ONLY THEN**, I would move to another character. This is a major issue I've seen on Fanfiction. When you start building up towards a peak (not necessarily the climax), suddenly changing POV's then continuing in the same spot next chapter can easily kill the tension. Imagine you are watching Endgame, and it suddenly cuts the Thanos fight to some conversation between other characters with no breather in between. You probably wouldn't stop watching just from that, but the rising tension would likely dissipate by the time it returns.

If you are planning on raising the scale of your story, you _**NEED **_to plan out your ICA's. If you plan on just telling the story of your OC, then you can basically just focus on your one-character arc. You only need think about the others when the arcs intertwine. Saying this, I don't mean to COMPLETELY ignore the other characters. You still need to plan enough to get the side characters where they need to be, not just have their presence when it's convenient.

**Ring of Influence: **The Ring of Influence, or ROI, is best visualized as a system of concentric rings radiating outwards from a character. Other characters related to the middle character would be placed on the rings based on their relationship. If they are very close, like siblings that grew up together, then they would be on the innermost ring. Someone who the central character has saw once on the street would be at the very edge. Anyone outside of the system of rings would be complete strangers - meaning that the characters don't even know they exist. Famous people that the middle character knows would be hovering above the ring, as they have never met them. However, the more they respect/admire that person, the closer they would be in the center.

Ex. Midoriya from BNHA would have All Might directly above him. This is because Midoriya has never met All Might in person until canon started. However, he worshipped him as a hero, making him directly above. Once Midoriya knows All Might in person? Then I would put Toshinori Yagi (All Might's true name) as either the second or third ring - first being where his mom is. Would the image of All Might still be hovering about him? Yes. The image of his idol is still somewhat detached from who Toshinori Yagi is until their relationship grew closer. The two positions on the ROI would eventually merge together.

Regardless, let us continue.

Now, let's look at some character circles for canon. If we look at Natsu, then we can see his immediate circle filled with the members of Team Natsu. The closest one out of all of those, is likely Happy considering he's basically Natsu's adoptive son - if Igneel was alive, then he would likely be closer than Happy. One ring outward, then we are looking at people like Makarov and Gildarts, who both served as older Role Models for Natsu. Every ring after, the people there become less and less intertwined with Natsu's own story. Even though people like Macao and Wakaba likely have friendships with Natsu, they don't compare with the closeness of people in the first rings.

For your OC, deciding the ring of influence will help you decide which characters to create arcs for. As in, if you have an OC in Team Natsu, then writing a full OC arc for Wakaba would seem like a pointless waste of time. This is assuming that there's no special connection between your OC and Wakaba specifically.

Let's look at another character - specifically Erza Scarlet at canon start. Erza, despite seeing Fairy Tail as family, likely would not have anyone in the innermost circle. This is because until the Tower of Heaven Arc, she was relatively guarded with her innermost secrets - specifically her time as a slave. Time skip a few arcs (but prior to TOH), then I would put the members of Team Natsu in the 2nd closest circle.

**Character Importance:** Just like arc importance, we must now decide which characters are going to be important in the story. Chances are, these characters would be part of the OC's inner circle (not necessarily Team Natsu). Characters that the OC aren't as familiar with likely won't get much screen time, unless they are important to the main plot despite not being associated with the OC.

For those of you that have read chapters 10 and 11, you should have an idea what sort of scale you have for your story. As a refresher, a story scale is how grand the events of the story are and how many characters have a stake in it. If you have chosen a larger story scale, then you would have more characters with different ROI's. There would be no singular character that outshines that rest of the cast like Harry Potter, but instead have a small group of main characters whose ICA's eventually meld together like Game of Thrones.

Anyways, let's assume you have picked a 7 from a scale of 10 - 5 being the same scale as canon, and 0 being completely focused on one character's development where canon becomes background events. There is a series of events that the OC directly has a stake in; however, other Fairy Tail members are also affected due to association. Some characters will have a higher stake than others based on their relationship with the main OC.

The first step to deciding character importance is by creating the ring of influence for our character. However, as the story progresses, character relationships could change, such as a huge fight making friends enemies or some life-death situation making enemies friends. This ROI will be used to visualize the relationships between the OC and other canon characters.

I can't actually draw through text so I will just list out the names in each ring.

Center Ring - Self: The OC - will use Ranmir as a name placeholder. This is self-explanatory. At the center of the ROI, is the OC himself. There is NOBODY that can be on the center ring other than the OC. No matter how close another character is, they will never reach the center. Think of the center ring as the literary asymptote of relationships.

1st Ring - Family, Lovers and Closest Friends: None - This tier represents someone you know at a deep level. A character would be able to tell them their deepest fears with utmost certainty that whatever they say will stay safe. You would not mind crying on the shoulder of people in this tier. Usually, the people here are people you see on a regular basis and have known for many years. Of course, even if you label someone as family, lover, or best/closest friend, they might not necessarily be close enough to be in the first ring. For Ranmir, despite having other members as friends, he doesn't know any of them well enough to be that close, at least emotionally. For his family, he has not seen them in awhile, neither does he have a close relationship with them, therefore they won't be included in the first ring.

2nd ring - Close Friends, Family: Before I continue, I want to say that the example of close friends, family, closest friends, etc. is **NOT **a guarantee. Just having these labels doesn't mean shit if the relationship itself isn't close. They are guidelines in general for people that _could _be in the second ring.

For people in the second ring, you are comfortable with sharing some secrets and insecurities you may have faced. You are unwilling to share about past trauma like you might with someone in the first ring, but the people in the second ring are people you trust a great deal. You know, beyond a doubt, that these people will never do you wring intentionally and will always have your back.

Anyways, for Ranmir, who would be in his second ring? I haven't completely developed him as a character, so I'll just do some short examples.

Wan Chanzi: One of the lesser-known characters of Fairy Tail, Wan is within five years of Ranmir's own age at canon start. This is likely the closest we can get to Ranmir (from what we know of). Although not much is known about Wan, let's say that he has the typical tough-guy personality, which is like Ranmir's own personality. This made is easy for the two to become friends, eventually becoming brothers-in-arms that often take missions together.

Macao Conbolt: While nearly a decade older than Ranmir, the two older men found each other through their shared interest regarding alcohol. The two quickly became drinking buddies, eventually finding their way into each other's inner circles through sharing their woes during their regular nights out. Although they don't hang together or go to missions often, their relationship is still regarded as close friends.

3rd ring - friends, familiar members: In the third ring, these are the people you are comfortable joking around with. You hang with them often and you don't find it awkward to talk about random things - these include things that people don't usually talk about in normal conversation, such as how large of a shit you just took. For people in the third ring, you don't mind talking about inappropriate topics, but you don't know each other well enough to share deeper secrets or woes.

Gildarts Clive: Gildarts is a generation away from Ranmir. This makes their relationship similar to a mentor friendship. While Ranmir isn't afraid to go to Gildarts for help or advice, their relationship has not reached the level where he would share their woes on the same level as Wan or Macao. For history, the two found each other similarly to Macao, with their taste for the finer beverages. The two are always down to party together, even if they never go on missions together.

Makarov: Being the parent figure of the guild, Makarov is likely in this ring, at the minimum, for most if not all the members of Fairy Tail. While Ranmir doesn't know the history or some of Makarov's own interests, he trusts him enough to be able to confide his woes, the same way you would be able to with your own grandparents, even if you don't see them very often - assuming your family isn't dysfunctional with a bunch of issues. Ranmir's relationship with Makarov isn't as close as the younger members as he was already grown up when he joined. However, Makarov's place as the Guildmaster has more than helped their relationship, with Makarov as a sage-like mentor.

4th ring - Acquaintances, surface friends: While not the final ring, I'm going to stop here because anyone in the 5th ring or lower wouldn't be important to the story. At least, not important enough to write about with the focus being centered around the OC.

For the 4th ring, these are people you met at work and have been talking to each other for a few weeks. You don't know their history, past, or what troubles they are going through. However, you know their interests, what they're planning to do, and perhaps even their goals for the future. For these people, you might not be comfortable with joking about inappropriate topics with closer friends. However, you don't feel that awkward with starting or continuing a conversation with them, neither do you feel an overwhelming urge to go on your phone around them. Other than people you met a short time ago, they could also be people you known for years but never really talked to other than the occasional conversation. You know what they're like and what some of their tendencies are, but you don't know their values, what jokes they like, or maybe even what they do on their free time.

Team Natsu: Being nearly a generation away from Ranmir, their interests and value seldom align, even when it comes to drinking/partying. While Ranmir does talk to them on occasion, many times, the age gap becomes apparent in conversation, especially when it comes to Gray and Natsu.

Alright, so I think I can end the ROI example here. It might help for an actual story to continue further, putting all the characters that **could **have an ICA in the ring. Really, anyone that's just there for a scene or two can be foregone. A simple list of notes on what their character is like (to keep the single scene consistent) would suffice.

Anyways, this ROI is for the example OC - Ranmir, at canon start. It is easy to see which character would take prominence in the OC's ICA compared to others. For example, Team Natsu often takes the forefront of FT storytelling when it comes to other dragon slayer OC's. However, in Ranmir's case, Wan Chanzi would be the most important character to write about as he is the closest to him. All the story arcs you build, should also include the development between people's relationships. This could range from a fight, making characters distant, or perhaps fighting together, bringing characters together.

**Note: **Now, some of you might be wondering: why is Minipa using different OC examples instead of sticking with Trystane and the Forest Dragon Slayer OC? It's true, having continuity in my examples would be easier to write, as I can build upon each. However, I decided to take another path, instead using different OC's in different walks of life to outline my processes. It's a bit more tedious than if I just stuck with Trystane, but I think it would be able to give people more insight with varying examples.

**Relationship Change Planning: **Now that you know how to determine character importance, hopefully you won't end up writing an arc with unimportant characters just for the sake of using lesser-used characters.

This section, relationship change planning, is the character version of story arc planning. Story arc planning is what happens, _when_ it happens, and _why_ it happens. Relationship change planning are the effects those story events will have on characters as well as their relationship between other characters.

Just like we did before with arc planning, we have to setup some form of timeline so we know where the characters would be and how they would end up. Before this, we have to decide: should we do the relationship timeline first or the arc timeline first? The answer is simple. If you have a story focused more on character relationships, then you plan the relationship timeline first, then build the events that will cause this to happen. If you have a story focused more on the events (such as a story with 6+ story scale), then it would be better to build the arc timeline first - then build the relationship timeline with the arc timeline as a reference. If story is more important, then the RCP will be the results of what you have done for the arc timeline.

TL:dr - If story is more important, build the arc first, then the relationship as a result of those events. If character development is more important, then plan relationship first and build the events that would lead to those changes.

For this example, let's take a look at a pairing fic. Normally I wouldn't read or write these ones, but I gotta give a cookie to everyone in the room, right? For the story, let's say Lisanna is trying to get with Natsu after coming back from Edolas. Now, the reason I chose this pairing is because there is some obvious relationship drama that could be had here. The most notable of which is Lucy's presence. Would their friendships remain? Would they decide to give up on Natsu? Would Natsu end up getting a harem (hopefully not but this one is more believable). All these questions are ones that the audience will be constantly asking; these would likely be the main causes for tension as well.

Continuing on, I will go through a step-by-step, layer-by-layer process of relationship building. While this is going to be focused between Natsu, Lucy, and Lisanna, the method can be used with other characters as well. Use it in conjunction with the ring of influence.

First Layer - Timeline: This is the relationship version of the arc timeline - basically just a set of loose notes with large intervals in between.

After Edolas: Lisanna returns, and has a moment with Natsu, rekindling old feelings. Unknowing to the two of them, Lucy gets a weird feeling (jealousy) that she has never felt before, at least not like this.

\- Natsu starts spending more time with Lisanna but **DOES NOT NEGLECT LUCY. **

**Note: **Seriously guys, you can write a story with Lisanna in it without turning her into the spawn of Satan and have Lucy leave the guild because of dumb shit or something.

\- Lucy is now showing more of her dislike for Natsu's increased time-spending with Lisanna. Lucy and Lisanna hit it off easily however, and they become friends.

\- Natsu, dense as he is, doesn't notice Lucy's emotions (obviously).

\- Natsu and Lisanna are getting weird feelings around each other - Lisanna knows more about it than Natsu.

Tenrou Arc: Natsu and Lucy are still friends, although Lucy's growing discontent is being more and more noticeable. Other members of Team Natsu and some others are starting to see something's wrong. Levy is the only one who has some idea on why.

**Note: **When actually writing out this arc

\- Lucy is acting somewhat cold, Natsu doesn't know if he's doing something wrong.

\- Grimoire Heart attacks.

\- Natsu ends up in positions saving both Lisanna/Lucy.

\- The two girls both realized each other's feelings towards Natsu.

\- Don't want to lose their love interest, neither do they want to lose their friendship.

\- Decide to just let Natsu choose.

X791 Arc: FT returns after Tenrou.

\- Fluffy arc basically

\- Both Lucy and Lisanna confess - instead of dumbass dating games they are straightforward with their feelings (I know, truly a work of fantasy, right?) - if you're focusing on teenage drama with girls as the intended audience, then I **would **put the dumbass dating games because they tend to like that shit.

\- Natsu cannot decide and admits he likes both of them

\- The three 'makes' it work

**How to make a harem actually believable - I still do not support the writing of harems.**

**Note: **For those of you that thrive on writing harems. Consider that you **DON'T **have to put thirty different fucking girls in the harem for a SINPLE person. Seriously, adding so many god damned girls becomes more and more unrealistic. There is an inverse relationship between compelling storytelling and self-fulfillment. If you are the best damned writer in the world and can somehow find a way to make a ten-women harem work? Sure, I'll give. But if you **AREN'T? **Please people, self control.

**Note 2: **Just because the three 'makes' it work, it doesn't automatically skip straight to horribly written smut. Seriously, there are real life examples of men with multiple wives. Consider researching about their relationships to know what a realistic multi-woman relationship could be like.

Now, the question is would I ever write this? For your answer, search up _'__**hell to the Naw**__'_ song on YouTube.

Anyways, what I just did here is the barebones of what you should have for relationship planning. It outlines what happens, roughly _when_ it happens, but not _why_ it happens. These are the 'checkpoints' that I have mentioned you should have for your story. Once you have the first layer or relationship timeline, it's time to expand into each separate arc.

To do this, I will take the four lines of notes under 'After Edolas' and turn it into a full arc description that can reach into the thousands of words - not necessary for pairings fics because there isn't much detail.

Second Layer - Arc Description: Remember what I did for the example Phantom Lord Arc? This is the same thing for relationship arcs.

**Arc Description:** After the events of Edolas, Fairy Tail is back to normal. I'm not exactly sure how much time actually occurs between the S-Class trials, but I'm going to make it three months for the example. This means there is a good stretch of time for certain events to happen with Lucy, Lisanna, and Natsu.

The purpose of this arc is to create fluff scenes that would open up the way for romance. The tension has only slightly begun and has not reached a point where it would cause drama.

**Order of Events:** Lisanna returns from Edolas; her and Natsu have a heartfelt reunion. Natsu holds her and says he misses her, but not in a romantic way. This could be perceived differently by Lisanna. At first, Lucy doesn't feel anything as she knows someone close to Natsu that he thought was dead returned. She knew they were close, but she doesn't know to which extent.

While Natsu is away doing Natsu things, Lisanna and Lucy talk to each other, finding that they have similar interests and they make friends with each other relatively easily. The topic shifts to Natsu eventually; Lucy finds out that Natsu and Lisanna had a very close relationship - especially the part where they played house as 'husband' and 'wife.' Lucy knows they were just playing as children of course, but she can't help but feel a bit, tense.

The feeling goes away quickly, and the two girls continue talking about things, such as Lucy's time in Fairy Tail, Lisanna's feelings about the guild, what happened in Edolas, etc.

Some time passes, and Natsu goes on a easy mission with Lisanna to catch up. This mission isn't elimination or anything, but a simple escort mission where the two can spend some relaxing time together. It is basically a date in all but name. At this time, Lucy asks Natsu if he wanted to do a mission, but he says he was already going to do one with Lisanna, and will be back later. Of course, Natsu says that they can do a mission together right after they get back - meaning **NO NEGLECT. **Lucy wants to ask to come with them, but she knows she would be third wheeling, so she basically remains at the guild.

Lucy's tenseness is now more obvious, to the point where members of Team Natsu as well as Levy could see it. However, Levy is the only one social adept enough to see what's wrong. While other people ask Lucy what's wrong and if she'd doing okay (she would reply nothing and yes), Levy was the only one who knew it was because of Natsu and Lisanna.

Lucy and Levy have a talk about how they are feeling. After the conversation, Levy says for Lucy to tell Natsu how she feels, but Lucy replies that she is not completely sure herself. Lucy begins a small arc of self-awareness to find out her feelings - some self-reflection, but mainly asking other people who had experience with love - such as the master.

On Natsu and Lisanna's mission, the two reminisce on old times, acting as if she never disappeared. Natsu gets serious, getting teary again from the time back then. Lisanna comforts him of course, and Natsu starts feeling weird in the embrace. He doesn't know what emotion that is of course, but he has a vague feeling he felt is elsewhere.

The two return, closer than usual. A lot of the other members don't see it, but to Lucy and Levy? It is obvious.

**Aftermath: **For the summary, Natsu and Lisanna reminisce, get closer, while Lucy gets help in finding out about her own feelings. There is not much tension in this arc, as what happens in the in-between is a setup for what is coming - the drama will happen in Tenrou when actual life-death moments happen. Personally, I wouldn't even call the drama, 'drama.' This is because all the tension would likely come from the girl's internal turmoil.

Some of you might be asking, 'what is the difference between the story arc planning and relationship arc planning?' In broader terms, nothing really. The formatting and structure is the same. What makes it different however, is the content. In the PL example, the notes were built in this format: this did that because that, this did this because this, etc. However, you might have noticed that the relationship version was focused more on what each character was feeling instead of what was happening. Sure, I would include events and what happens; however, the main content in the notes would be the feelings of each character as time goes on.

Anyways, let's move on to Layer 3!

Third Layer - Chapter Progression Timeline: Hopefully by now, you all know what the CPT is. If not, I'll summarize it again. The CPT is a series of notes that act as a summary of what happens in your chapter. After that, you start writing out the scenes to bridge every line of notes.

For this example, I will only be doing ONE CPT, this is because the entire After-Edolas arc would likely take 3-5 chapters, and ain't nobody got time for dat.

This will be the part from the Arc notes I transfer into the CPT.

_'Lisanna returns from Edolas; her and Natsu having a heartfelt reunion. Natsu holds her and says he misses her, but not in a romantic way. This could be perceived differently by Lisanna. At first, Lucy doesn't feel anything, as she knows someone close to Natsu that he thought was dead returned. She knew they were close, but she doesn't know to which extent._

_While Natsu is away doing Natsu things, Lisanna and Lucy talk to each other, finding that they have similar interests and they make friends with each other relatively easily. The topic shifts to Natsu eventually; Lucy finds out that Natsu and Lisanna had a very close relationship - especially the part where they played house as 'husband' and 'wife.' Lucy knows they were just playing as children of course, but she can't help but feel a bit, tense. _

_The feeling goes away quickly, and the two girls continue talking about things, such as Lucy's time in Fairy Tail, Lisanna's feelings about the guild, what happened in Edolas, etc.'_

CPT

\- After the events of Edolas, the Fairy Tail members notice the return of Lisanna Strauss, who has revealed that she was living in Edolas all this time. Natsu, with an incredulous face, approaches, still unsure if her presence is real. Lisanna reassures Natsu it's her, before the two embrace each other in tears. Natsu says he missed her, squeezing her tight. Lisanna returns the gesture.

\- Lucy watches the two embrace, being very happy for them at first, understanding that someone important to Natsu thought dead has returned. She knew very little about their relationship, as no one really liked talking about them. All Lucy knew was that they were very close.

\- Scene skip a couple days. Natsu left for a short job while Lisanna fully integrates back to the guild. Around this time, she has been welcomed and is getting back to the guild life.

\- Scene of Lisanna and Lucy talking to each other, the first time in the couple days where they sat down and had an actual girl-talk conversation. They speak about their feelings about Fairy Tail, before Lisanna talks about her time in Edolas and about her relationship with her old-new siblings. Lucy understands, before going into her own history, specifically about Phantom Lord and how Natsu lead her to Fairy Tail.

\- The conversation continues towards the events before Edolas Arc, where she talked about the Tower of Heaven, Juvia, her other friends, and even the time Natsu made her masquerade as a maid to complete a mission.

\- Topic shifts to Natsu, and Lisanna begins talking about all the times they spent together as kids. Lucy learns they used to play husband/wife, even mentioning about getting married in the future. A weird feeling emerges in Lucy; she suppresses it and waves it off. This feeling is jealousy, but she does not know it herself yet.

\- Lucy continues talking for a while after, before Lucy leaves Lisanna to herself. The two make friends, even if Lucy has the weird feeling persisting. At this point Natsu is still on his mission.

Yes, for **ALL **of you; no matter what you write, whether it is a pairing fic, story fic, character fic, or world building fic, you _MUST _plan out what you are planning to write. Every layer of planning, you add more and more **RELEVANT** details until you finally reach the unofficial 4th layer, which is just writing the chapter.

By the time you reached that point, you shouldn't have an issue with what you are writing. What happens in the chapter is already outlined in detail, and all you have to do, is to write out the scenes. For those of you writing larger arcs involving multiple characters, you can use the same process. HOWEVER, have multiple subsections of notes regarding the relationships of other characters - assuming they are important.

**Romantic Importance: **Before I begin on writing a romantic relationship, let's look at **romantic importance. **I don't mean how important romance is to **you** as a writer, but how important romance is to the overall plot and theme of the story. If you are writing a story that focuses on the development or certain themes or parts of the world, then having a romantic subplot could become an unnecessary side plot that really doesn't need to be there.

Hey I get it. A lot of you want to write in the pairings because you want your OC to be in a pairing. Really, do they need to be? Would the story be better with the pairing? Would the OC's character development be better because of the planning? I will attempt to help you answer those questions now.

For those of you that are writing a story focused on the pairing itself, then the answer is obvious. The romance is important because that is literally the whole point of your story. If you are writing a story such as this, then feel free to skip the rest of this section.

Now, this section is written for those of you that want to tell a story of a character, not necessarily of his/her love life, but of the journey and adventure that he will have from the beginning of the plot to the end. Could romance be something that enhances his life or help him learn valuable lessons? Sure. However, you have to be careful to actually write it that way. For this, I would suggest on getting a beta so author bias doesn't get in the way of making an informed decision - this is assuming you are writing the best story it can be, and not just have certain things be a certain way because you desire it (even if it may not fit the original narrative you have constructed).

**I**f you ever get to the point where you desire a certain detail for the story that conflicts with decisions you have already made, then you will have to consider a few things. Is the new detail really that important? Is the detail that you want right now really what you want, or is it more of a fight reflex to someone that made a comment about that particular detail that you didn't like? Are you willing to reconstruct the entire storyline you made so far just to fit that detail in? If the detail is basically just a passing detail that you thought would be cool but doesn't fit in with the rest of your story, consider scrapping the idea altogether. If that idea is the most perfect idea you have ever had, and you feel your story would be far better in doing what it's doing with it, then consider rebuilding the story to fit in the detail smoothly. As in, don't just patch it in and make up some bullshit but change nothing - that's for lazy people.

Would this process be simple? Yes. Easy? Hell to the **NAW.** Deciding whether or not to keep/scrap ideas is probably going to be the hardest thing you have done as a writer. Consider creating a system that allows you to weigh the importance of each idea with the amount of work needed to rebuild your story. Is it worth it? Consider asking others for a second opinion and/or waiting a few days and coming back to the decision when the initial spark of inspiration has worn off - this could cause the fight reflex to keep the idea out of pettiness if someone were to disagree with your idea in this initial spark phase. This happens to me too, refraining from making a decision until that spark wears off has worked wonders.

Anyways, continuing onto romantic importance; let's say you decided that the romance WILL enhance your story other than add pointless word count - of course if it doesn't then I assume you have decided against adding a romantic subplot, even _IF _there are references to it. With this decision, I'll also assume that you are not writing a pairing/feelings themed story, as then the answer would be obvious.

The type of story that I assume you are writing, is adventure based. You have an OC, he goes on adventures, maybe travels the world, learns his life lessons, and is moving towards some sort of end goal. You have decided to fit in romance somewhere in this story, and you believe that it will improve it in some way or form.

Anyways, now that you decided that it IS important. We must understand _how _it is important; how your OC develops due to the romance, relationships that could affect the way the plot advances, potential allies or enemies made, etc. For example, if your OC fell in love once, but had his heart broken (or just some form of trauma due to being abandoned or betrayed), then his world view will be quite different than what it was before. He could have been more guarded and distrusting, especially around woman. He could be less inclined to talk with people due to the fear of being hurt again. He could be less compassionate because he started to see the bad in people more than before, simply because of that trauma.

If this was the OC's past, then the **new **pairing that you have planned could have the OC's planned love interest help him open up. This could allow him to feel emotions that he no longer wished to feel due to the fear of being betrayed again. In this case, then the pairing would actually have a major role in the OC's character development.

This new personality derived from the presence of a pairing will lead to different decisions made from his original self. The OC could have shown compassion to people that he would otherwise ignore back then, allowing him to gain an ally that could come back in the future to bail him out of a tough spot, potentially saving lives.

This of course, is just one of the ways that a romantic relationship could affect the character and plot. For those of you still wondering, here is a simple process done through a series of questions that will help you think.

Step 1: Is my story a romance story?

Yes = skip to step 4. No = continue to step 2.

Step 2: Is the romance going to enhance the story in any way?

Yes = continue to step 3. No = don't write the romance unless you want to so badly that you would rip your balls off from not writing a pairing.

Step 3: How is the romance going to affect the OC and story?

Not a simple yes and no question here. I can think of many examples; however, at the end of the day, you are the one that will have to be answer these questions. If you don't know how to start, take what I have said previously and try to deviate from it as much as possible. Take the multiple ways the romance will affect the story and decide on one. Once you have picked one out of all the others ones you thought of, expand on it and try to implement it into a timeline.

Step 4: Write out the relationship planning timeline.

By this point, you have decided whether or not the romance is important, how it is important, and how it can affect your character. You have prepared adequately and now? It is time to figure out how to _actually _have the romance occur, as in the details! How the characters get together, what traits they have that they will find attractive, and many more :D

…

**Okay, so I wanted to put everything into one chapter (again), but a 5,000-word chapter ended up probably being another 20,000-word chapter (again). Therefore, I will have to end it here before the chapter gets too long.**

**Anyways, I thought this was a good place as any to end the chapter instead of continuing onto the next set. **

**Thanks for reading, see you all next time!**

**See ya fat smelly neckbeards :)**

**.**

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**Chapter 12 Done! Next Chapter: Relationships Part II - romance blooming, fights, conflicts, and side characters!**

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	13. CH13 - Canon Insertion: Relationships II

**Chapter 13 - Canon Insertion: Relationships Part II**

**I probably should have realized that I was a shit word count estimator. How did I think all the previous sections would be 5,000 words? Almost all of them were 15,000 - 20,000. Jesus Christ.**

**However, I have some good news! I managed to cut out a bunch of unnecessary shit from this chapter and keep the word count to below 8,000! :D **

**2-3 more chapters and you will be able to write the best damned OC story known to humanity :)**

…

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**Romantic Relationships: **Thankfully, the last section covered a lot of what I was going to say this chapter. This means, I can move on to romantic relationships! A.K.A: _pairings. _

Before I start, I must ask the question: what are pairings? I'm sure many of you have heard that term, even if you don't understand what that means. Pairing refers to the 'pairing' of certain characters in a romantic manner - as in _pair. _Would I still call harems pairings? Personally, no.

I'm sure you all read pairings in story summaries before. Things such as OC x Cana, NaLu, or really anything of the sort. Pairings are usually stated as character x character, or as a 'ship' name - a 'ship' being a combination of the pairing characters' names (such as NaLu being Natsu x Lucy).

For those of you that don't know, a ship is basically a specific pairing. To '**ship**' something, is to agree with that particular pairing, even writing that pairing personally or to encourage its occurrence in other stories/canon.

Now that you know what common terms are, you must be wondering what exactly is the purpose of this section. While everyone has different methods of writing romance, I want to set up some 'standards,' if you will.

Build-up. Understandably, people in real life have become interested in another person after one conversation, perhaps even to the point of infatuation. However, I do not believe that you can legitimately fall in love with someone, at least in the truest way, after one meeting. Regardless, build-up is probably **THE **most important thing to consider in writing romance.

If you are planning to write two characters getting together for whatever reason, you have to consider their history, their _joint _history (the time they spent together), their personalities, and their state of minds at a specific time. This means that you shouldn't have your OC Dragonslayer **CRUSH BLUSH EVERY FUCKING GIRL IN FAIRY TAIL WITHIN 2.1 SECONDS.** Seriously guys, you're all better than that.

If you are planning for two canon characters (such as Natsu and Lisanna) getting together, you have to consider the conditions needed for this relationship to bloom.

With NaLi, the two already have a close relationship, meaning the likelihood of them getting together is rather high - even IF NaLu is supposedly canon. The two have been together since they were small and likely got closer before Lisanna got shipped through a sky anus into Edolas. As soon as she returns, their old feelings could rekindle after a short time. This could lead to romance, depending on how you write Natsu considering he basically chooses to ignore such things. Of course, if you are writing a romance story, then you will have to chance a few details to make the pairing possible. By change a few details, I don't mean make Natsu some OOC darker Natsu Casanova bullshit. I mean SMALL details. As in, maybe have Natsu get feelings because of a life/death situation or from the void being restored from Lisanna's return.

Characters don't make 180's right away, but different events happening from canon can make changes that would divert from their canon personalities.

Anyways, NaLi aside, what about… _OC romances?_

Without any preestablished history, I am going to have to **HEAVILY **stress the build-up. I'm talking tens of thousands of words of scenes/events _JUST _for the main pairing. If you are writing an OC x Erza, OC x Mirajane, OC x Cana, or whatever the fuck, be prepared to RESEARCH OUT OF YOUR **GOD DAMNED BALLS**.

Anyone who writes romantic Fanfiction should have their CDS/wiki character page open just so they can refer to canon histories and personalities. THEN, they can deviate from the point of divergence and reasonably move from point A to point B without making characters OOC for the sake of the pairing.

**NO FUCKING CRUSH BLUSHING HAREMS. **

Continuing on, let's use an OC Dragon Slayer as an example.

Let's say you have already built the character, figured out his strengths and weaknesses, planned the ICA, made arc notes several arcs ahead and have your CDS ready. All you have to do now before writing, is to work on the relationship, specifically on how to plan out the romantic aspects.

Let's say you wrote an OC x Erza (which is the most popular pairing with OC x Mirajane just behind). How do we make this work? In canon, Erza was basically in love with Jellal all the way back since they were children. Something akin to a small crush grew, despite Jellal's absence, into their relationship in the future arcs. Which means for the pairing to work, your OC has to be far closer to Erza than the other characters. Close enough for Erza to _WILLINGLY _drop her strong façade to reveal the inner vulnerable Erza.

How do we do this?

First, we have to look at Erza's and the OC's character, or perhaps even the assumptions character during a time not talked much about in canon - the years between Erza joining Fairy Tail and canon.

For Canon Erza, I'm taking it straight from the Fairy Tail wiki:

'_Erza is a very strict person, often criticizing the bad behavior and habits of the other guild members, causing most of them to apologize, fearing that they might invoke her wrath. She is also very impatient, disliking people who don't answer her questions quickly enough. This, coupled with her own tragic childhood, caused many of her guildmates to avoid her due to her social awkwardness. However, she has a great sense of justice and pride in being a member of Fairy Tail.'_

For the OC, let's say he is relatively lazy, trains very little but is a near-genius when it comes to magic and combat. He is confident with great problem-solving skills and rational thinking. He's very witty, often making jokes at other people's expense and has a rather savage sense of humour. As a member of Fairy Tail, his self-adopted role is similar to a big-brother figure of a gang. He's normally too lazy to bother with guild brawls, but he is known to go _way _overboard from the slightest slights against him, the other members or his guild's good name - given they come from strangers or non-friends. He has no romantic experience whatsoever, but he is known for going out of his way to cheer his friends up, however rare.

Anyways, while a character data sheet would offer far more detail than the paragraph above, it is enough for our purpose of determining how their relationship would go.

First off, let's look at some contrasts.

Erza is strict, often nagging over guild members over their habits. Her impatience makes it so that she would be quick to anger if her own guild mates don't comply or reply to her. To the average joe, these qualities alone would make Erza extremely unapproachable, even if she is physically attractive. From those traits, we can assume that Erza is a conscientious person (likes to keep busy). If we look at the OC his laziness (and likely low conscientiousness), would be a huge red flag for Erza. If he is lazier than the average FT member, then she likely gets on his ass **daily. **Which means the two would constantly argue about the littlest things - sounds just like a relationship, am I right?

Anyways, for this pairing to work (IMO), where the OC is not some pansy bitch boy that gets whipped, the relationship has to be relatively equal. Considering the OC has been dealing with Erza's shit since they were young, he would likely be resistant to her glares and threats, even to the point of just waving her off or giving her the finger. For this to work, the two would have to be able to fight on even terms. Meaning that the OC is likely S-Class (slightly older than the canon cast) or have the strength of S-Class. I can imagine the OC being too lazy to bother with the test, even if he has been nominated a few times.

Secondly, the OC likes to make jokes on other people's expense, often using insulting methods. Depending on who he targets, it would likely sit wrongly with Erza, ESPECIALLY if he targets her - which he does. Of course, despite the obvious issue of being extremely enraging, this particular trait could actually be endearing to the right person. Especially if Erza considers this different, in the way that most men are deathly afraid of her, while the OC isn't. Not only that, but the OC is brave enough to make joker at _her _expense. The different experience along wouldn't make Erza fall in love right away, as with all the 'school idol liking the emo kid because he gives no fucks about her status' bullshit.

With the main contrasts out of the way, let's look at some obvious similarities.

Erza is a passionate woman; couple that with a '_great sense of justice and pride in being a member of Fairy Tail,_' we get a woman who is not afraid to punish/fight those who are disrespect her guild. The OC, seeing himself as an older-brother figure of the guild, would feel the same. The two, despite harshly disagreeing with each other in terms of daily routines, can agree completely on the proper course of action to those that would bad manner the guild - harass them physically. Of course, this alone would not be enough to spark a relationship.

These traits alone would allow the two to gain mutual respect. Both for each other's strength and their sense of pride. Both are willing to protect the guild members, as well as its good name. Even though they may have different standards in terms of day-to-day activities, the two is more than capable of getting along outside of it.

So, what exactly would cause the two to begin liking each other? In my opinion, it would have to be in a situation where either Erza or the OC (I'll call him Svatin) would open up a bit more to each other, showing their lesser known traits. This could be the moments when Erza acts more feminine then usual, liking clothes and generally girlish things. For the OC, it could be moments where he is acting uncharacteristically compassionate or understanding in situations where he would normally make a joke. The first would show that Erza isn't just some totalitarian with no semblance of any womanly traits. The second would show that the OC is mature enough to know when and where his jokes, however insulting, can be tolerated - they are never 'appropriate.'

Now, physical attraction is important in a relationship, at least in terms of sexual chemistry. Am I suggesting you write a random lemon scene? No. **GODS, no. **What I mean by that, is if the OC and Erza find each other physical attractive in some way or form, their initial 'spark' will be _that _much easier to write about. Am I also suggesting you write some drop-dead gorgeous Adonis of an OC that crush blushes everyone? No. You don't need to be 10/10. People can be a 7 and that's still very attractive to certain people.

Erza had a crush on Jellal, likely due to his kindness when they first met, his charisma, intelligence, and the fact she found him cute - assumptively. With this, we can probably get an assumption for Erza's type. For the OC, perhaps he usually leaves his hair unkempt, not bothering with any self-grooming except for the minimum, this would keep his physical attractiveness relatively low, even if he is supposedly physical attractive.

Would the OC be charismatic? Considering he is a near-genius in combat and magic, he would likely be competent in leadership, owing it to his quick-thinking and problem-solving. In the right situations, he would find it easy to take the lead, even if he usually can't be bothered with it (like Shikamaru from Naruto).

Would he be kind? Despite his savage humour, he cares about his guild mates. If not so, then he wouldn't bother lashing out against people that disrespect them. His compassion is usually in a tough love way, but he's smart enough to know when he has to bring out the sympathy. He wouldn't do it unless he knows it's _important. _His compassion is reserved for a small group of people. However, for those small group of people? He would go right out of his way, without poetic words of course, just to cheer them up. Even in these endeavors, he would try to pass off the uncaring act, even if his actions say otherwise.

Now that we established that the OC has traits that Erza may find attractive, we can get to the slightly easier part: deciding the OC's type. Obviously, the OC's ideal woman has to resonate with Erza's character in some way or form. Am I saying that she is THE perfect woman for him? No. Erza likely has some traits that shine through that would be attractive to him, even if there are traits that he finds annoying, such as Erza's imposing conscientiousness. For the sake of balance, I'll have Svatin's type to be feminine woman strong enough to handle themselves, but also someone that is open-hearted, and is not afraid to admit their faults and to show compassion.

If we are talking about Erza on a surface level, then we can easily say that she is a woman strong enough to handle herself. What about the others? On a day-to-day basis, Erza would basically match ONE of those traits. However, it has been determined that she CAN be feminine, and in the right situations, she would be open-hearted and admit her own faults - such as when she did in the TOH arc. For the last trait, she would likely never show it the way that Svatin finds endearing, but she DOES show it. This would likely be some relationship obstacles/lessons in the future once they do get together.

After this analysis, we determined that love CAN bloom between these two characters, meaning romance could be written in a way that doesn't seem OOC or forced - especially when it comes to Erza. For those of you that do not understand it after reading the example, here is a summary of the processes I used to write it.

Step 1: Choose your pairing.

Assuming you already know what type of person your OC would go for as well as the personalities traits they have, we first have to decide the person that would fit the OC. You can likely find some sort of reason for any character to get with any character, to determine which characters fit the best, consider the time it took you to think of all the reasons, the number of reasons you thought of, and how forced each reason feels. Forced reasoning? Don't do that pairing. Took you 10x longer to figure out the reasons for one pairing then another? Don't do that pairing. If Erza or Mirajane just so happens to fit your OC more than the other characters just use them. Don't pair him with someone random like Levy or Ultear just for the sake of pairing someone different.

Step 2: Consider their traits.

After step one, you likely have already done a little bit of step 2 when choosing. However, step 2 involves looking at the surface traits, deeper traits, as well as the situations where certain traits might take precedence over others. Use your ROI and character data sheet to determine what these situations are, and what characters might cause certain traits to come out. Once you have, consider which of these traits in both characters would the other find attractive.

Step 3: Find a way for romance to bloom between these two characters.

These carries us to the next subcategory. You have chosen the pairing that would enhance your story the most (and not just because it's different). You have considered the traits of both characters and you have determined that it is very possible for love to bloom between the two. Not only that, you don't intend to write an extremely specific or forced encounter either. Now you just have to write out those scenes that could bring the two closer or for the traits the other find attractive to show itself prominently.

**Romantic Beginnings: **Finally! You have planned out your pairing, figured out the pairing is possible to achieve without unreasonable methods or OOC, AND you have decided that the pairing will be necessary to the character development to your OC or the parties involved.

The next step is to write out a scene, or scenes, that will give the initial spark to this relationship.

There are many ways love can start. It could be because of shared interests and regular meetings/conversations. The two could have discovered they have a lot of chemistry and they decided to get together, regardless of who makes the first move.

Although the method you choose for a romantic beginning isn't as important as the relationship and development itself, there is likely still a method that would fit both characters more than another.

Let's begin by listing some of these methods out in detail, then we can choose which one. Of course, I will not be listing **ALL **possible methods, because that's simply impossible. Most of the things I am going to write here would be more general. You could take the examples I give and expand on them, or even use them as a base to diverge into your own method. At the end of the day, your story, your rules.

1) Life/death situation - common one for a adventure-based story like this.

One of the most popular ways I've seen OC's get with their pairings, the life/death situation method is an ideal choice for love to bloom, especially when the characters don't show their attractive traits to each other on a day-to-day basis. In this method, the OC and Erza would likely either be taking a mission together or would occur during an arc that would involve multiple people - such as the Tenrou Arc or Phantom Lord Arc. It does _not _need to be a canon arc however, as you can easily write an OC arc that would include events sparking their relationship.

What would be some examples of a life/death situation? Let's say in Tower of Heaven, the OC is present. This is assuming you changed the arc to fit him and not just add him to canon. The events happened in a way that would involve the OC in the final boss fight. Assuming he either grabs the fight from Natsu in a meaningful way, or have his own enemy to defeat, he has to be there when Erza is getting sacrificed. The conversation goes a bit differently than when Natsu talked with Erza, allowing for the change of feelings to happen - in the way she sees a stark contrast between the OC and how Jellal is like now. The OC saving her life, perhaps even confessing, could be enough to ignite her own feelings.

2) Build up - Good for pairing fics or stories spanning a large interval of time.

Instead of having one big event for the love to begin, the relationship started all the way from the beginning. From strangers, to acquittances, to friends, then eventually love. This would likely happen through the course of years and would involve the OC joining the guild early on - I would say multiple years before canon starts.

Slow build up takes more planning than life/death. Instead of having one arc that acts as the major spark, you have various moments that the two paired characters would see as endearing. These moments could be anything; however, from the description of OC and Erza previously, it would be during the moments they show their less-known traits.

Perhaps Erza could have a reaction about clothing that the OC sees. This could spark a subconscious thought the Erza is womanlier than he would seem. Another example could be when the OC gives a talk to one of the younger members when they are struggling with something. He actually sits them down and shows compassion instead of making fun of them like he usually does.

3) Courtship - Good for chase-style pairing fics. I wouldn't use this for story-based fics.

Courtship is different from methods 1 & 2 in the way that it is _intentional. _Method one and two involve feelings developing naturally, with neither side expecting it. Courtship is when one side actually takes action to build a romantic relationship. Considering it is between an OC and Erza, I would assume the OC is the one doing the courting (at least in a pairing fic), as that would be the end goal of the story. If you plan on using this for story-based fics, then it doesn't really matter who is courting who, as there wouldn't be as much focus on the romance compared to a pairing fic.

To pick who is going to be the 'chaser,' I would go back to the processes I mentioned earlier and last chapter, then decide who gains more in terms of character development. For the context of your story, if it makes more sense for the OC to court, then have him court. If it makes more sense for Erza to court, have her do it instead.

4) First sight/infatuation - Unrealistic in my opinion, although it does happen.

IMO, this method is not as viable as the first three. However, I don't doubt that some romance-writing genius would be able to play it off well. This is very self-explanatory. When you have the pairing, one or even both of the characters literally decide that the person they are looking at is the most perfect person for them, their soulmate if you will. However, if instantly get together, then there would be no story, right?

The trick to achieving this is to be able to create meaningful drama that would result in the characters getting together, unless you want to write some sort of bittersweet ending and have the two never see each other again or some random bullshit.

Anyways, while there are more methods to start the romance, the four I listed are the most common ones - although courtship would be the most common, at least out of all the ones I have read. Assuming you have created your method, all that is left is to write out the scene. Use the three-layered planning technique from last chapter to help you with doing this.

**Fights: **Ahh, yet another thing that exists that people either don't know about, or turn the resolution into an apologize fest for the OC :)

No relationships are perfect. They are strengthened through constant trial and error. When disagreements occur, fights could happen. This could be an explosion of rage or an extended period of passive aggressiveness. Regardless of how the fight happens - whether cold war or direct war, there is usually some sort of conclusion. This could either be a ghost fest, where no one talks to one another and thinks the other should make the first move and apologize first, or both sides express their issues out of anger and the two eventually find some sort of compromise.

In my own personal experience, fights have always been the silent treatment exploding into direct warfare, where we rage at each other before calming down and talk out our differences, reaching a conclusion. These would be the fights I tend to write. However, if you know others who have experienced other types of relationship conflict, then by all means, use them as inspiration for the fights in your story.

Anyways, those of you that have reached this point have the character data sheet ready, know your OC's from heart and can predict what your OC would and wouldn't do in certain situations. Knowing this, there shouldn't be much difficulty in writing what types of conflict they might get into.

Just like before, author bias can adversely affect fights, especially when you desire to victimize your OC. While it is true, at certain parts of the story, other characters could make mistakes that would put them in the wrong, especially with the OC. However, the same should and **WILL **happen the other way around. The people who are apologizing should not always be other characters; sometimes, the OC will mess up. This could force them to drop their pride, or at the very least, calm down and think it through rationally. Perhaps he was in the wrong, perhaps both were in the wrong.

Regardless whose fault it was, one thing that you should **never **do, is resolve the conflict right away - especially if its one of their first fights. While it is true, characters that have been with each other for tens of years could resolve their personal issues quickly, that shouldn't happen for the first major fights you are writing in.

Let's use a fight between friends as an example; perhaps you had an aggressive disagreement with one of your friends. It could be something petty, it could be something life-changing, it could be because of different ways of doing something, or it could be differing opinions. An argument that would actually force a resolution instead of pacification, would likely be due to an issue that has been there for awhile - let's say a habit you don't like from your friend, but you held your peace until you couldn't any more. Instead of releasing the pent-up anger in a health way (such as talking it out firmly and calmly), you decide to be passive aggressive or by being petty - common for immature people.

For many people, it's easy for spectators or people listening to the story to just say 'why don't you just do this and this?' Personally, that method of speaking is unhelpful. The ability to compare your own experiences based on sentiment even if you never experienced a similar experience, is empathy.

Let's say you are a very good driver, and someone complains to you how hard it is to drive on the highway. You feel completely different because that's like breathing for you. However, you might find it extremely difficult to fix a car, and you know some people may do it like they're making breakfast. You compare your sentiments with fixing a car and put it in the place of the person finding it hard to drive on the highway. Instead of saying shit like 'just learn how to drive,' you're able to compare it with your own experiences of similar sentiment and say 'hey man, I know how it feels to struggle at something, keep trying, I have faith in you!'

What does this have to do with fights in stories? Everything. Some characters could be capable of empathy from the start, while others may have to learn it through many fights. Determining whether or not your character is capable of this will drastically affect the types of conflicts in relationships.

Back to the example of a friend, let's say the argument was inconclusive, and the two of you ended up not talking to each other for the rest of the day, making group projects or meetings awkward. The tension is in the air, but no one really wants to poke that. Therefore, the surrounding people just try to ignore it the best they can. So, what happens now? If you are writing a fight similar to what is occurring here, then you must look back to your CDS, and determine how they would react.

If your character is prideful, chances are, they might keep the belief that the other person should apologize and likely refuse to acknowledge they are wrong - This, however, has to be paired up with low self-awareness, high ego, and self-victimization. If your character is sensitive and apologetic, which is common for people with low self-esteem, they would likely apologize first, because they worry far more about what the other person would think of them then who is right in the argument - this could loop back to self-victimization, where both sides will want the other to apologize first until one eventually breaks.

Of course, regardless of what happens, the point of putting that specific fight in the story because there is a goal for that fight. Does the relationship of the characters involved worsen, get better, or perhaps change? Does love bloom through the understanding and compromise they achieve after the fight? Do they become bitter enemies that refuse to see eye to eye because of fundamental differences of ideology?

For this specific example, let's say there was a fight between the OC we talked about earlier and Erza. They had just recently gotten into their relationship, and the initial spark has faded. What we have now are two people that are more invested in how the other lives - especially considering there is a stark contrast between their levels of conscientiousness. Erza being high, the OC being low.

The pent-up frustration that had no outlet due to them not being close enough to tell the other how to live their life, is now exploding. Erza finally goes all out in complaining about the OC's bad habits, while the OC explodes on how Erza should just stop complaining and let him live his life, especially considering many of his habits don't bring harm to anyone. At the end of the fight, the relationship is visibly strained and both sides are considering ending the relationship. Their daily frustrations are the main focus of the two; the initial spark that got the two together is fading faster and faster.

So, what should happen here? Personally, I believe relationships should be equal, if the two reside in opposite extremes, then they should BOTH make the effort to close in on them middle. If one side is doing all the changing and bettering, then I would consider it toxic. If both sides care about the other, they would make the effort to change. If one side decides that the other should just accept their faults and make zero effort to co-exist, then really the only plausible action is to end the relationship. HOWEVER, I'm going to assume that the purpose of the fight isn't to just end the relationship, but to develop it. Therefore, I will go with both sides making the effort - the amount of effort will never truly be equal.

After this, the OC and Erza is no longer talking to each other. Erza still glares at the OC when he is lazy, but no longer makes a direct effort in complaining. I personally do not believe that Erza is the type to be passive aggressive, so I will go with her angrily glaring and acting cold to the OC. The OC? He would pretend everything is all right, while deep inside, he wishes they could get back together, but doesn't know how. For this fight to actually mean something, it SHOULD include scenes where both sides individually go through their own arcs, finding meaning and inspiration to resume their relationship. This could either be the characters talking about their woes to others, or perhaps a realization that happened during a mission or adventure.

For this example, I'll have Erza go on a mission by herself to clear her head. During the mission, she remembers some missions she did with the OC, reminding of the moments that she found endearing. She remembers the sentiments that drawn her to him and has begun reflecting on them. However, even after the anger has calmed, she still struggles to make the first move. Something is blocking her from talking to him first. Pride? Weakness? Strength? She doesn't know.

The OC is still angry about how Erza is always complaining. He eventually goes to some friends, let's say Gray or Levy, and begins complaining about her. Gray casually mentions that if the OC hates her so much, then why is he still dating her and not break up? The OC struggles to answer that question. Deep down, he still wants the relationship, even though he seemed to have forgotten the reason. However, faded, it's still there. Of course, Levy would disagree with that course of action, instead suggesting him to remember what made him fall for Erza in the first place. At this point, the OC could spend some time alone to clear his head, thinking of the past memories he had with Erza - perhaps a specific area he took her in their relationship such as a date or a simple walk in the park.

Considering the fight isn't based on some big wrong one person did to the other, there wouldn't really be blame. Both sides had their issues with the other, and it just so happen to explode outwards.

So, what happens now? The fight wouldn't immediately resolve. They are no longer angry at each other, but both are lacking the necessary motivation to make that final step. A good intermittent step between the calming and the resolution, is a period of time where both sides want to get together but are either too awkward or not confident enough to do so. Perhaps both try, and instead opt to not say anything and fall back to small talk. The original anger isn't there, but there's still a barrier of awkwardness considering the fight hasn't officially ended.

Could other characters be involved this? Of course. Considering Fairy Tail's community nature, I don't doubt that other members, especially the woman, would try to get them back together. The OC and Erza's awkwardness would be easily noticed by most, although many would likely stay out of it. Many would want to help of course, but most wouldn't really know how. At this point on, there could be a small arc detailing a small group of characters' plans to get them back together. Would there be failures? Of course. Some could even make the awkwardness worse. Eventually though, that obstacle would be broken down.

Let's say after many awkward situations and conversations, one character, likely the OC, would make the leap of faith and just apologize. As soon as he does, Erza's own obstacle would be broken and the two will begin to talk it out. They would speak about their experiences the last week and express their desire to get back together. Would they end with a sentimental reunion? Hell's yes.

Now that the two are together, what happens now? Would there be more fights? Sure. Small arguments and disagreements happen regularly between couples. Would there be big mores like this? Only if it's important to their development. After this fight however, the two would carry the experiences they had apart and use it to strengthen their relationship. Of course, the wounds of their fight will remain for a while. They would likely be more careful around the other before returning to their original selves. Their daily arguments will no longer be as bad as both sides are making an effort to move towards the middle. Not only that, but because the two now understand why they do the things they do, such as the OC explaining why he acts Lazy and Erza explaining why she always gets on people's asses, there would no longer be a need to feel frustrated.

Why? Because they understand each other more now.

To end this section, I want to say relationships aren't prefect. It's very rare for two people to be perfect soul mates for each other. Most of the time, there would be traits that you hate about someone, and traits you love. Should you just accept whoever they are? For this part, I disagree. Relationships is a dual journey. I believe that people should always better themselves in some way or form. Sometimes, personality quirks could actually be detrimental mental disorders. Laziness and lack of conscientiousness isn't something you should just deal with, it's something that can really negatively impact your life. If two people truly care about the other, they would make the effort to improve themselves. Things like impulsiveness, impatience, pride, and oversensitivity are all things that people can get annoyed about, and can be rectified through improving self-awareness. Only through being aware of your own thoughts, can you break out of old patterns.

**Fluff/Slice of Life: **Alright, enough of the serious shit. For those of you that don't know what these are, slice of life is the scenes involving the mundane experiences such as eating, walking through the park, and cooking, while fluff is the display of affections between characters - doesn't have to be romantic, two friends being bros can also be fluff.

What is important about these types of scenes? While some people like to keep the tension flowing, starting new main arcs one after the other, I personally like to put in in between scenes - mini arcs containing slice of life and fluff if you will.

Now, what exactly is the benefit of such scenes? The main thing is how it allows the readers to peer into the character's lives outside of adventures. What they like to do on their spare time, their hobbies, their likes, dislikes, and all the other traits on your CDS that wouldn't normally see the light of day. IMO, SOL and fluff scenes allow you to add another dimension to your characters, showing that they are more than the roles they play in the plot, but as actual people existing in a fictional world.

Of course, writing out these scenes are also a delicate balance. I have seen stories that meander in SOL, creating tens of thousands of words and dozens of chapters of fluff. While this isn't bad in a pairing/relationship-based story, doing that many mundane scenes in an adventure-based fic could throw off the pacing, even making readers lose interest because while they are wondering what happens next, they get scene after scene of interactions. Is that saying interactions are bad? Nope, and if you jump to the opposite extreme because I said one extreme is bad then you should consider meditating and self-reflection :D

What I mean by that, is you should balance out the slice of life with your plot. Having no breather in between could make the story feel rushed, tense, and feel as if there was no respite to the story. Basically, as if you were watching multiple movies in succession with no breaks in between. All the characters would seem more like actors in the plot, rather than people in a world.

With slice of life, it is important to give your readers just enough respite, with just enough content to humanize all your characters, all without meandering aimlessly with no advancement to the plot. Now, people have differing opinions about SOL/fluff. On one extreme, you could have people who prefer stories where the fluff arcs are just as long as the normal arcs, while on the other side, you could have people that want **zero **fluff whatsoever, instead finding the best fics as the ones that would hold the tension. One arc after the other.

Knowing this, is there still a way to please all the readers? Nope. If you haven't learned that yet, then know it now. You will **NEVER **be able to please all your readers. Don't write the story hoping to satisfy the people reviewing. Write the story because it the creation you genuinely want to create from the bottom of your heart. If you feel like having no fluff or having more fluff is better for your story, then don't let anyone else's opinions, including my own, stop you. Regardless of what you do, just be prepared when not everyone agrees with you. Write more fluff? People will say too much. Less? People will say too little. Around the middle? People will both say too much AND too little. Just write what feels right, don't worry about what other people say. This of course, is to not justify author bias. Listen to your beta and the people that invest into building your story. End of the day, still your decision. Be ready when not everyone agrees with it.

Anyways, now you know the purpose of fluff/slice of life, what examples would I be able to give for them? Some of you might not know where to start, even though you have a good idea. Anything you imagine that you might do off work, can be described as slice of life. You could have a scene where your OC tries to cook their favourite meal. Does it need some sort of deeper meaning such as the scene showing that the OC is independent or has certain tendencies when cooking? Not necessary. Does it matter if you do it anyway? Nope. While there CAN be purpose to F/SOL, you don't need to write it like you write a full arc. Just write something fun, heartwarming, or even just relaxing.

**Conclusion: **Relationships are **hard; **in real life _and _in writing. Out of all the things I have said in chapters 12 and 13, just remember; develop questions that you might ask when criticizing/analyzing another story, generate as many answers to those questions as possible and consult your beta in figuring which answer would best fit the story, then weigh it against what you want for the story - regardless of how it fits. Sometimes, you may not want to write the story that is the most rational, and that's perfectly okay. Don't write a story because it's what you SHOULD do, write one that's in agreement with your creative spirit. If it's a harem? Then write it. Does it matter if I wouldn't read it? My words aren't law, just do what you want, and be prepared when not everyone likes it.

For relationships? Use examples you know in real life. Consider the traits of each character and ask yourself more questions, **ESPECIALLY **why. Sometimes, understanding why you do or write certain things can help you decide whether or not to scrap an idea, especially if it's unnecessary. Become more self-aware with your thoughts and writing habits, understand those as well.

All in all? Find balance, **your **balance, not my balance. Sure, your beta and others might disagree, but understand those as well. Seek to understand your own intentions, and the intensions of others. Find where they are coming from, and where **you're **coming from. Once you know, you will be able to decide what you really want for the story.

**Keep writing friends.**

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**Chapter 13 Done! Next Chapter: Canon Insertion: World Building!**

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	14. CH14 - Canon Insertion: World Building

**Chapter 14 - Canon Insertion: World Building**

**Now we get to the fun part :)**

**As the OC guide comes to a close, I just want to say, thank you for supporting and following me on FN, and I wish you the best of luck in your own writing endeavors.**

**And here we have… WORLD BUILDING!**

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**Introduction: **For those of you that had read my original Trope Discussions, I'm sure you know I have already talked about World Building! In this last chapter of the OC guide, I will be focusing on the storytelling aspects as well as the OC for world building.

Now, what is world building? I'm sure that even if you cannot define it, you would have done it in the past. WB is the act of generating facts, lore, history, and any background information that is relevant to your story. Think of your world, history, characters, and otherwise as an expanding canvas. When you WB, you fill in more and more of the canvas, putting art of all types on it.

The plot is a spiderweb-like view of the canvas that moves from place to place. If you fully built the part of the world the story resides, then the readers will be able to see every bit of the view filled with various pieces of art. If you missed some areas? Well, they would just see blank.

What does the 'blank' represent? Plot holes basically. When you fail to set certain standards or facts regarding your world/characters, it is easy to become inconsistent. The more this happens and more inconsistent you get, you basically end up with the power scaling of Dragon Ball Super.

Of course, some parts of your world building will likely never see the light of day. They could simply be mentioned once or twice, even if they were rather important events that occurred in the background. The relevance of such would not come in the chapters, but rather as the effects they _had_ on the characters, thus affecting the story at a grander scheme.

Before we continue, we have to answer the question: **how important is it to World Build?** If you answered anything other than, HELLA FUCKING IMPORTANT, then you're wrong :D.

I'm sure many of you cannot understand the benefits of world building. However, I will tell you some effects of **NOT **world building. And _boy_, they are **UGLY.**

First off, we have the common lack of power scaling. Yep; PS is part of WB because it allows you to set standards of power between characters. What happens when we have a lack of power scaling? Nakama power, bullshit asspulls, and random power ups - all of which are a horrid soup of rotten excrement used to copra-baptize infants in a sauna. Why is this bad? Simple; when you have a character that cannot defeat Erza or someone of that strength, they should not be able to defeat Laxus. Some people might say that the character is a 100% direct counter to Laxus; but, are they really? Ask yourself that question _really _hard.

Now, what's a trap that comes with this? It's the fabled_… shit-fixing_. For those of you that don't know what shit-fixing is, it can be defined as patching your plot holes with more garbage. Let's say, someone points out that certain characters should or should not be able to accomplish something in the story, but, instead of rereading your CDS (if you have one), you simply just add in a paragraph saying the character is injured or tired. Basically, you're not really fixing your mistakes, just patching over with supplementary facts and not changing anything else. Oh, the more shit-fixes you do, the shittier your story becomes. Trust me on this one.

Secondly, we have lack of variety! Creating the limits and capabilities of your OC's magic is also a part of world building. I'm sure many of you seen dragon slayer OC's use a grand total of **FOUR! **Roar, fist, kick, and elbow anyone? Why does this happen, I wonder? It's because of the lack of world building; wow can a character use more spells when the author didn't even bother to build more? If you are going to write an OC story, have a list of spells they know or will learn AND have it within the predefined limits of your OC's magic at various points on the timeline.

Third, plot inconsistencies. While there are many ways this can happen, I'll give an easy example that anyone can understand. Character travelling. You know how in media, movies, and TV, you might get a character moving from place to place with little to no explanation? Some are played off as humour, while some give a vague explanation expecting us to actually believe it's possible in the context of the story. Should you do this? No.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in writing is to rise above justifying your own decisions because someone else has done something similar. Sure, you could say that your story is a Mary Sue harem because all the top rated stories are too, but come on… you're all **better. **I have faith :)

Anyways, how do these types of plot inconsistencies occur? When you move characters from place to place, you should ask yourself how they got there. After you answer it, keep asking layer upon layer of why, until the answers you have reasonable chain together - creating a smooth transition from point A to point B.

Let's say you have a character enter a highly guarded fortress. You have made clear that it is VERY difficult to enter. You scene skip to a character entering and play it off as 'just walking in.' Sure, some readers could just ignore it but, what was the point of making the fortress seem difficult to enter? Other than wanking the competence of your characters of course.

**How to World Build: **The first step to world building is to know **how **to world build. While that seems pretty obvious (thinking of shit), it isn't. If world building was obvious, then the majority of stories in Fanfiction, as well as actual stories, wouldn't suffer from those issues.

Before I continue, I want to say that your first draft will likely **never **be put in the final version. Instead of randomly thinking of bullshit and thinking 'yep! That's perfect!' you should fill in all the gaps for specific arcs then revisit and improve on the old ideas. That or completely scrap it altogether.

Anyways, how do we world build? Just like planning, I like to separate world building into multiple layers, where I would ask various questions about my own story.

First Layer - Drafting: Let's say we are building magic and we have to figure out all the details regarding. The first layer, drafting, is basically laying the foundations of what would become the magic. This is where we brainstorm everything we possibly can: strengths, weaknesses, limits, history, subcategories, etc. Anything on your mind, non-sensical or otherwise, write it down. Don't bother quality checking here, just put down ALL your thoughts. A lot of it would likely be changed or scrapped, but you can't exactly continue world building if you get stuck on one detail because of unnecessary perfectionism.

**'It's not perfect so I'd rather not do it' - Beat this thought and you will succeed :)**

For the purpose of the example, I'll use something common and likely to be used in the future: **Chaos Dragon Slayer Magic. **Let us assume that the OC did NOT learn the magic from Acnologia; instead, he will be a second generation slayer.

We start by asking ourselves questions about the magic and to continue doing so until we have all the information needed to fulfill the steps in Chapter 8/9 - Magic and Fighting styles.

First off, what is 'chaos?' Chaos, as defined by Google, is complete disorder or confusion. So, how do we transfer that to magic?

Considering we're talking DSM, we have to address the issue of slayers being able to eat their elements. A general rule of thumb I have with slayers is that they should have some sort of boost, even if it's not done through eating it, when in contact with their element or even an idea associated with their element - such as conflict for war slayer magic or some shit.

Ex. With a Chaos DS, he could get a boost in strength the higher the levels of entropy around him - assuming he doesn't open his mouth and 'eat' chaos because that would be **utter** idiocy. With that idea, how do we actually use a viable measurement for 'chaos?'

Personally, I think getting into scientific calculations would be rather pointless in this endeavor; therefore, we will accomplish the measurement with some simple rules.

If there are little changes in Ethernano in the OC's surroundings, then there would be little 'chaos.' However, if there are many changes such as during a battle with many mages or a magic-fueled natural disaster, then there would be high levels of chaos. With this, the OC would get stronger as the number of combatants increase; he would also get stronger in busy areas, even if it's miniscule. Using the same logic, the OC would be the weakest in a 1-on-1 setting fought at a plain with no one else.

Again, the OC does **NOT **need to open his mouth and suck in the chaos, because that would be _**fucking retarded.**_

Anyways, now that we have determined what chaos is, we have to ask ourselves: what would be the effects of his magic? Of course, destructive power is proportional to the amount of magic used in a spell, but, does it have special properties?

Ex. Natsu's attacks would no doubt burn people and Gray's attacks would freeze people.

Considering chaos is based on entropy and disorder, perhaps the special effects of chaos would be the ability to disrupt magic. If someone was struck directly by a chaos-empowered attack, then the Ethernano in their body wouldn't behave properly for a certain period of time. Of course, those with greater control can shrug off the effects faster, while someone with poor control could end up miscasting spells throughout the whole battle, perhaps even outright exploding from magical backlash.

Knowing this, are there other applications to this particular property? Yep. It can be used defensively, breaking apart magical blasts as they come. If the Chaos DS were to fire a beam of equal strength to another beam of magic, then his magic's ability to disrupt other magic would likely destabilize the opposing beam, dissipating it into its surroundings. Of course, a beam many times stronger than the chaos beam would likely power through the chaos beam, even if parts of it are getting disrupted.

Another way to use the disrupting property is against passive seals or magical traps. If there are seal-like matrixes in your headcanon (like there is in mine), then chaos magic would likely render any seals or traps useless. This is because when contacted with chaos, the specific ways that magic has to flow is disrupted, causing seals to malfunction or not work at all.

**Note: **There are many different aspects to a magic, and to get through all of them would make this section 20,000+ words long; therefore, I will be focusing on just two aspects of chaos magic in this example: special properties and history.

For the history of chaos magic, we have to decide on a few things. Namely, where did chaos magic come from, if there are known users in the past, how difficult it is to learn compared to regular elemental magics, and where did the OC attain the lacrima (if it was implanted by someone else, then we have to figure how _they _managed to get it).

The thing is, many answers for these questions would likely not see the light of day. However, having these facts ready will keep future decisions consistent, especially when it comes to combat. The last thing you want to happen is for your OC to accomplish certain feats just for him to say he can't do it because some ass garbage three arcs later.

Anyways, how did chaos magic came to being? Instead of some generic bullshit such as having learned from dragons - it's a viable method but I prefer to not use it. Let's say a mage was practicing another type of magic, what type is irrelevant. However, on one of his attempts, his control slipped and destabilized the spell, creating a chain reaction that messed with the surrounding magic. Through this, he noticed that his malfunctioned spell disrupted everything that it came in contact with. By accident, the mage discovered an effect, and used it to create a whole new branch of magic.

The actual science of using chaos magic is to purposely destabilize your own spell, but holding the spell shell enough to contain the reaction within until hitting its target.

Now, since chaos magic was not learned from a dragon (even if dragons using chaos magic did exist), how do we world build the existence of chaos dragon slayer lacrimas? For me, that is easy. _Artificial_ dragon slayer magic.

While dragons can create lacrimas by condensing their own magic into one, humans can achieve similar results by using a more strenuous, multi-step process. Let's say in the headcanon, humans have learned to filter out elemental properties of dragon slayer magic using a complex series of seals. Doing so allowed humans to create typeless dragon slayer magic. This allowed the mages to insert their own element/aspect using another seal matrix.

One of these mages, let's say the OC's father, created a chaos dragon slayer lacrima using this method, and implanted it into his own son.

Moving on, are there any known users in the past, or more specifically, famous ones? For chaos magic, no. There were **zero **chaos mages that made it as a legend or historical figure. While there are historical figures that were capable of chaos magic - let's say August from Alvarez is capable of using it, none of them used it as a primary magic.

Now, why would there be no famous mages using chaos? This will tie into how difficult chaos magic is to learn. Let's say that due to the nature of chaos magic, there's a steep learning curve, especially when it comes to control. Theoretically speaking, a full-fledged chaos mage could counter anyone within his power level; however, the amount of control required to use it to that extent turns off a lot of new practitioners. This causes most people to steer towards easier magic, especially ones with early rewards. This resulted in chaos magic being used a secondary, often by older mages who already had mastered their control from using other types of magic, making the learning curve much flatter.

Second Layer: Edit and Expand: While the draft isn't 100% complete, we can move on to the second layer for the sake of this example.

Once you have filled the entire picture for a subject you are world building, it is time to go back to those notes and polish them. This is the process where you scrap certain ideas that wouldn't fit, expand on ideas that lack information, and perhaps change certain areas to fit with the narrative better. Not only that, you should also have your beta go through the notes as well. Even if your world building ideas are well-thought out, having a different perspective could allow for improvements or ideas that you were unable to accomplish yourself.

Let us go back to what we put down for layer one, reread it, and see if we can make some edits. While the general information seems complete, one thing I noticed we can add is a specific example of the OC using his magic. For example, if the OC covered himself in chaos magic, would that make him immune to all spells? No. While chaos magic does have disrupting properties, there is still a quantifiable limit on how much magic it can disrupt per second. If the amount of magic striking the OC is greater than then that amount, then whatever left would still continue towards him.

Just looking at the OC's chaos magic, not setting ground rules in **this specific area** would cause power scaling inconsistencies. Let's say at canon start, the OC is capable of disrupting 500 MPF (magic power finder) units of magic per second. If he was hit by Orga's black lightning cannon, then he would still be struck by over 3,000 points. He would lower the attack power by about 10%, but the other 90% would still damage him.

HOWEVER, if he were to fire a beam worth 2,000 units against that beam, then there would be the potential of him overpowering Orga. How? Considering magic beams move basically instantaneously, neither mages would have time to react if something were to happen to their beams. The moment Orga's beam hits the OC's, his beam is effectively halved in strength, with the OC's being slightly stronger. This being, by the time Orga realizes something is wrong, he would likely get hit by the OC, effectively cutting off his magic control.

Now, what I just mentioned actually requires you to WB some magic physics. For the most part, I would assume that 99% of you won't likely care enough to world build to this degree. However, quantifiable measures of magical strength will make consistency far easier to achieve, especially if there are numbers associated.

Of course, whatever 'magic physics' you build, would simply lead to the result of such numbers/calculations. In the scene between the OC and Orga's beam struggle, it would just be them firing, a slight ripple effect in their struggle, and then the OC overwhelming Orga. It would take only a few seconds in actual time, but the actual physics are still present in that sequence.

At this point, world building is repeating the second layer until you feel satisfied with the level of notes you have. As a standard, I would say you shouldn't be satisfied until you have notes to all the questions that readers may ask on first glance. Most readers will likely not ask you about the physics or science involving the magic, but you should be able to answer questions such as where the OC got their magic. Not only that, but you shouldn't have to answer that question in PMs or review replies. That particular question should be answered by the story itself. Don't just march your OC into canon with this magic and just answer 'because I said so' to every fucking thing.

Again, everyone has different standards of writing. My level of satisfaction regarding WB is likely different from yours. However, just remember that failure to bridge gaps in terms of world building, you will encounter situations where your own story conflicts with something mentioned before. Not only that, readers may get confused and feel some parts of the story are forced. If you're going to write whatever you want, then readers will criticize however they want. Be prepared for that.

**TL:DR - Brainstorm on every question you can ask about an aspect in your story and try to remove all the retarded shit.**

**When to World Build: **Now that you know the process of World Building, it's time we decide _when_ we should world build. The short answer? Whenever we need lore or background information regarding something that wasn't mentioned in canon. In fact, even if something _was _mentioned in canon, if you are changing details to fit a different narrative, then you will need to WB as well.

The long answer? You will have to look are your arc notes before we can decide on the details. For example, let's say you have an OC arc taking place in Minstrel, then you are going to have to world build everything about Minstrel that is relevant. These things could include the culture, the currency, its relationship with Fiore, the government, the presence of the magic council, how businesses are run, types of magic, how strong the mages are, and MANY more.

For those of you that are new at world building above the norm, I would suggest not having your OC arc take place in another country, especially one with no canon notes.

Let's take a look at another example - a more common one. If you insert your OC into a canon arc, then you might have decided that you have to add an OC on the villain's side to achieve balance. Other than your own OC, you will have to world build basic backstories, motivation, origins, and magic for that OC, even if they only appear for that one arc, then die.

You might be thinking: why should I waste so much time and effort building a character that is not even going to appear in any other arc? I can't answer that question for you; if you want to put in the _least_ amount of effort on an OC, then you only have yourself to blame when your characters become bland, generic, and forgettable. In fact, this is the main reason why you want to world build on secondary OC's as well as characters with little information.

If it was up to me, I would say world build the **LIVING SHIT **out of everything relevant. If you want to write a compelling story, put the damned work in.

**What to World Build:** You might be thinking: I already know what to world build, just whatever is relevant to my story, right? Sure, I'll give you that.

However, this section is both for the people that think they know, as well as for the people that literally don't.

To start, we can look at what type of OC we are writing and determine what to WB from there. Let's say you are writing an reincarnated SIOC. You have decided for the SIOC to use a less-common magic, and have them join Fairy Tail before canon. Just from that sentence, there should be multiple things on your list of things to world building already.

\- What magic they use and the specifics of said magic

\- Where the SIOC is born in and its relevant details

\- How and where they learned their magic

Of course, there are more things to world build, such as relevant groups, history of Fairy Tail if its different, expansion of canon details, etc. However, deciding what is relevant and what isn't will come at a later section. For now, let us focus on the three because no matter how the story goes, I'll assume what I've listed will **always **be relevant.

I will assume you already know what to WB for magic, so I will be moving onto where the SIOC is born.

For this example, the SIOC was born into a family of high-ranking Rune Knight officers. Both the SIOC's mother and father hold high positions. Neither are dead and the SIOC is the first of four children. The SIOC was also born in Era in a military-ran hospital controlled by Rune Knights.

You should be able to see multiple areas to expand on based on the paragraph above. The first that I will talk about, is family history and dynamics (this crosses over to relationships). Since the SIOC was born in a RK family, that would mean being officers likely stem back multiple generations. From which generation? Let's say the SIOC is 8th generation RK. Now, would there be any notable figures in his family? Let's say the 2nd generation of their family - I'll call them the Marin family; they ended up being the head of the RK's, even being one of the most powerful officers in RK history.

Next is family dynamics. Let's say both the mother and father are formal and militaristic in nature. They have high expectations of their kids and rarely take the comforting stance. That said, you will have to world build the backstories for the mother and father to explain why they are like how they are.

Previously, I mentioned the SIOC's parents are high-ranking officers. What rank do they hold? In canon, the highest rank shown was just captain. However, if there are higher ranks, such as general, marshal, colonel or anything else, you will have to world build. For this example, we will assume the RK's have similar rankings to the modern military, meaning that the general will be the highest rank. Both the mother and father are generals and are mages equivalent to S-Class.

If the SIOC's parents hold ranks that weren't mentioned in canon, then you will have to world build the Magic Council. This is even more important considering the OC will be directly related to the MC.

Now, what about the SIOC's siblings? For a fun little approach, let's say the main SIOC's siblings are **ALL **SIOC's from varying places (although let's call them RLIOC's or Real Life Insert Original Characters to avoid the technical confusion). They do not know each other, but they all know they have been reincarnated, even if not all of them know of Fairy Tail. Let's say the second sibling is a year younger, the third sibling is three years younger, and the fourth sibling is five year younger. Their genders are not important - ***TRIGGERED* :) **

Anyways, now we have to look at Era itself. In canon, Era looked to be a city surrounding the MC HQ, which rests on a stone mountain. Considering its location, Era is likely a well-fortified base filled with RK personnel. This is also the home of the SIOC. From this, I can think of multiple things I would personally world build, such as daily life, treatment from others considering they are children of officers, traffic regulations, location of bases, standards of living, and frequency of visits to the MC HQ.

Chances are, just from that little bit of information, you will have thousands of words of notes. This is not even including the various characters that may show up in the SIOC's history.

Again, there are millions of examples and I can't get through them all. However, you should all get into the mentality of asking questions about your own OC. Every time you decide on something for a new story, expand on all the little details that will supplement the narrative.

**Don't get lazy. The only thing that laziness hurts, is yourself.**

**Why to World Build: **If you don't know the reason for this already, then know this now.

World Building is the difference between having your readers immerse into your story and skimming through each chapter. World building is when your characters come alive as if they were actual people, existing elsewhere, other than roles in a book. World building allows you to build real-life parallels, even in a fantasy setting, allowing you to enhance the level of relatability.

World building is ALL of these things. Is there such thing as too much world building? I would say no. Even if you wasted time building irrelevant things, chances are, those things won't ever make it to the final draft. This means that they wouldn't negatively OR positively affect your story.

**Final Conclusion: **If you have read all they way from start to finish, then I hope you understand all the necessary steps you have to take to build a story. From the beginning prompt that started the journey, to the final arcs and the epilogue.

Stories are meant to be for creative expression. Everything I mentioned in this instructional piece are TOOLS. Whether or not you use them is completely up to you.

…

**For those of you wondering what I'm doing after this; I am going to return to writing my OC story: ROTLB. I'll also be updating my Nothing Dragon Slayer and A God's Redemption Story in between. **

**Now, I will also be accepting OC's in case studies. If you have an OC you volunteer for the guide, then not ONLY will I critique it, but I will offer all the advice I can, using the tools I made myself to make the character more alive. I won't be changing the OC, even if I disagree with its details. If you hand me a dragon slayer OC that has a harem, then I will show you how to make that work. **

**See you all there!**

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**Chapter 14 Done! OC Guide, DONE! BONUS: CASE STUDIES! SEND ME YOUR OCS :)**

**Make sure you guys check out my other stories!**

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**[The Nothing Dragon Slayer's Misadventures in Fairy Tail]**

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**Minipa, out!**


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